ウィリアム·ウェッグマン
威廉·韦格曼
Уильям Вегман

source: williamwegman

William Wegman was born in 1943 in Holyoke, Massachusetts. He received a B.F.A. in painting from the Massachusetts College of Art, Boston in 1965 and an M.F.A. in painting from the University of Illinois, Champagne-Urbana in 1967. From 1968 to 1970 he taught at the University of Wisconsin. In the fall of 1970 he moved to Southern California where he taught for one year at California State College, Long Beach. By the early 70s, Wegman’s work was being exhibited in museums and galleries internationally. In addition to solo shows with Sonnabend Gallery in Paris and New York, Situation Gallery in London and Konrad Fisher Gallery in Dusseldorf , his work was included in such seminal exhibitions as “When Attitudes Become Form,” and “Documenta V” and regularly featured in Interfunktionen, Artforum and Avalanche.

It was while he was in Long Beach that Wegman got his dog, Man Ray, with whom he began a long and fruitful collaboration. Man Ray, known in the art world and beyond for his endearing deadpan presence, became a central figure in Wegman’s photographs and videotapes. In 1981, Man Ray died. It was not until 1986 that Wegman got a new dog, Fay Ray, and another collaboration began marked by Wegman’s extensive use of the Polaroid 20 x 24 camera. With the birth of Fay’s litter in 1989, Wegman’s cast of grew to include Fay’s offspring — Battina, Crooky and Chundo — and later, their offspring: Battina’s son Chip in 1995, Chip’s son Bobbin in 1999 and Candy and Bobbin’s daughter Penny in 2004. Out of Wegman’s involvement with this cast of characters grew a series of childrens’ book inspired by the dogs’ various acting abilities: Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, ABC, Mother Goose, Farm Days, My Town, Surprise Party and Chip Wants a Dog (all Hyperion). Wegman has also published a number of books for adults including Man’s Best Friend, Fashion Photographs and William Wegman 20 x 24 (all Abrams) and Fay and The New York Times Bestseller Puppies (both Hyperion).

Wegman has created film and video works for Saturday Night Live and Nickelodeon and his video segments for Sesame Street have appeared regularly since 1989. His videos include Alphabet Soup, Fay’s Twelve Days of Christmas and Mother Goose. In 1995, Wegman’s film The Hardly Boys was screened at the Sundance Film Festival. After a twenty year hiatus, Wegman returned to the format of his video work from the 70s producing two new series of video works in 1998 and 1999. A collection of his selected video works from 1970-99 was recently released on DVD by Artpix.

Numerous retrospectives of Wegman’s work have been made among them “Wegman’s World,” which opened at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis in 1981 and toured the United States and “William Wegman: Paintings, Drawings, Photographs, Videotapes,” which opened at the Kunstmuseum, Lucerne in 1990 traveling to venues across Europe and the United States including the Pompidou Center, Paris and The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. More recent exhibitions have included retrospectives in Sweden, Japan, Korea and Spain and, most recently the exhibition “Funney/Strange,” which opened at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 2006 with a catalogue published by Yale University, making its final stop at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus in the fall of 2007.

William Wegman lives in New York and Maine where he continues to make videos, to take photographs and to make drawings and paintings.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source: kcetorg

The Weimaraner is a dog that has become synonymous with artist William Wegman. Long before his work became a household presence, Wegman began his practice of making still photographs and experimental videos — sometimes with the aid of his dogs Man Ray and Fay Ray. In the early videos, Wegman would perform tasks such as posing coyly in a sarong while holding up his elbows to create the illusion of having breasts, or dribbling milk out of his mouth for Man Ray to lap up behind him. These gestural tasks were in loose conversation with contemporaries like, Skip Arnold, Bruce Nauman, and Peter Campus — artists who were exploring the body, formal composition, and expression in the early ages of video art.

Perhaps the best-known video of Man Ray and Fay Ray is one in which the two dogs follow a ball held by Wegman’s off-screen hand. Their behavior is utterly familiar, yet the framing and isolation of the activity makes it uncanny: each dog has an individual character, but still responds to the stimuli predictably in tune with the other. This work calls into question the human element in performance art: if many performance artists perform based on explicit direction, could we not consider Man Ray and Fay Ray to be performance artists, too? Through these simply constructed works, Wegman reveals the mannerisms behind manners, the impulse behind action, and brings us to consider ideas about cognition and propriety. Thrust into the frame of conceptual art, the Weimaraner’s actions put into relief the very performance of human.

Working with man’s best friend gives Wegman’s work an inherent, perhaps instinctive charm, one that has led to the artist’s creation of iconic film shorts for Sesame Street, Saturday Night Live, and most recently the Colbert Show. Part of the humor to Wegman’s work is that the dogs’ heads are positioned over the bodies of human actors, creating a hybrid being whose head, whose “soul,” is motivated by instinctual desires that are quite different, and often counterproductive, to the rote tasks that the body performs. The universality and humanity of this humor is one of the reasons why Wegman is one of the few artists to have achieved such widespread success and acclaim across audiences both young and old, niche and mainstream.

In other bodies of work, Wegman explores parallel themes of nature, transcendentalism and the didactic tools people create to understand the natural world. This past summer, Bowdoin College Museum of Art was home to a comprehensive exhibition of the artist’s work, largely drawn from his rarely-seen personal collection of drawings, photographs, video, collages, and nature books. “Hello Nature” featured over 100 works that were all produced or inspired by the state of Maine, Wegman’s summer home for the last three decades. Literally taken from out-of-doors and from inside the artist’s personal life, these works coalesce into a perhaps quieter and sublimated reflection on the same recurring issues of human nature that were expressed in the early videos.

William Wegman ‘Untitled (Ghent Fay with Apples)’ 1990. | Courtesy William Wegman Studio.
William Wegman ‘Untitled (Ghent Fay with Apples)’ 1990. | Courtesy William Wegman Studio.

Some of these rarely seen videos will be broadcast this week on the Museum of Contemporary Art’s online channel, MOCAtv. Inside his upstate New York studio, William Wegman describes how he came to working with his dogs and the process behind three rarely seen videos: “Spelling Lesson” (1974), “Ordinary Deck” (1997), and Installed “Guitar” (1998). Produced by filmmaker and art documentarian Peter Kirby, the interview is the latest video in the West Coast Video Artist series, an original lineup of interviews and rarely seen works by seminal West Coast video artists – only available on MOCAtv.

Here is William Wegman in his own words:

The first year, I made a video in Santa Monica, and I was showing it at Pomona College. We borrowed a deck to play it on, and the person who brought the deck back recorded over a whole year of my work! So the first two years of video, just no one has ever seen it more than once.

But then I settled in with a machine that I got at White Front made by Sony, sold by General Electric. It was reel-to-reel, half-inch and that became what I later called, “Reel 1.” I ended up making a total of 10 reels over a 30 year period.

Dogs were something, I had a dog growing up, but my first wife, Gail really wanted a dog, so the deal was when we moved to California we would get a dog. We ended up getting a Weimaraner at six weeks of age, which now I know you shouldn’t do. You should wait until the dog is eight weeks at least, otherwise they don’t think that they’re dogs. So that became Man Ray.

He followed me wherever I went. When I went to my little studio, a couple blocks away, he would come. I was doing video pieces then and I would set things up and he would sometimes get in the way. I would try to get keep him out, but he refused. In fact, he would emit this high-pitched whine, when I wasn’t using him. Occasionally, I had to tie him up because he would just mess everything up.

He had a real relationship with language with Man Ray. Some of my pieces were about teaching and children, in a way. You talk to a dog almost by using sign language, and so that was one idea. But the other was these early primers in education, were almost how you would talk to a dog, like, “Bring me the…,” “Sit. Stay. Roll Over.” They pay close, close attention and they can get sort of confused by doing so, by trying so hard. And when you see this video, you see how he was a little upset because he could tell that I am a little concerned. I’m not yelling at him, but I was speaking to him in a very serious way. As though we’re discussing something, and it’s got some key words that are driving him completely crazy. “What are we doing?” “When are we going to go there?”

So, I get this dog who I name Fay Ray as a sort of sequel to Man Ray, and she had a litter in 1989 or 8 or 90, 7, and one of them became my dog. I named her Batty because she looked like a little bat. All of Fay’s puppies were premature. It’s almost like I had gotten Man Ray at 6 weeks, these puppies were really young. And I think by having them almost be like a month premature, they were a week premature, I became even more attached to them, and vice versa because I had to hold Batty to nurse. I had to almost be like the mother myself. I became very attached to this dog, who got used to being around me all the time, but was very blasé, where Fay was really excited about working; whether it’s video or film or being in a photograph, like “Wow! We’re doing this!” She was almost narcoleptic. She would practically fall asleep. But she was always around me.

I remember when I started to paint, and she would come and look at me brushing at what she thought was a wall. I was working on these big things. She’d look and she was pretty interested in it, and then she would go and lie down. So to make this little work, I decided I was like a, like a construction worker or something like that, and I pretended to install some sheetrock to a wall.

All my work I just do it once. I didn’t rehearse that. If it doesn’t work out, you’ll just never see it. You don’t even know that I tried to do it. Before I was working on “Spelling Lesson,” I was on top of those tables in my underpants doing some dancing with my legs, my hairy legs. It was absurd. You’ll never see that. It looked kind of like something Vito Acconci might have done, but not me. So, things, sometimes when I work, things take a sharp turn.

Making videos, films, for Sesame Street with my dogs as human characters, and how I would do that is that I would put them on an elevated platform, like a stool that I had made for them to be a certain height. And the actors would stick their hands through sweaters or jackets. I would cut out the back, and so they would stick their hands through. And I would give these dog creatures almost like mythological characteristics, or like cartoons, like mice with hands or whatever. So it became kind of intriguing. And I thought that I would switch that up by putting myself on, but having my main actor, who always worked with the dogs, do my hands.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source: sombras-eletricasblogspot

William Wegman é um artista norte-americano que, desde os anos 70, vem trabalhando em diversos suportes, com suas pinturas, fotografias e vídeos. São famosas as séries fotográficas com os cães Man Ray (em homenagem ao fotógrafo homônimo) e Fay Wray (nome retirado da clássica atriz de cinema). Wegman também é considerado um dos pioneiros da videoarte: contribuiu para o ótimo videoclipe de “Blue Monday” (1988), do New Order, e para a série infantil de TV “Vila Sésamo” (a partir de 1989); além de diversos “microcurtas” experimentais, dos quais o site oficial do autor oferece uma pequena amostra. São filminhos-brincadeiras poéticas que dificilmente passam muito de 1 minuto de duração, e são mostrados sem qualquer edição, legendas ou créditos – antecipando, quem sabe, a geração “youtube”. Vamos aos melhores deles:

Stomach Song (“Canção do Estômago”, 1970-1971, 1:20): o artista aparece sentado numa cadeira e enquadrado fixamente num plano médio que lhe corta a cabeça e os pés. No centro do quadro, os mamilos e a dobra da barriga na altura do umbigo formam um rosto que começa a “conversar” com o espectador e cantar para ele, graças a movimentos musculares bastante inventivos e à voz em “off” do artista (uma vez que o rosto real não aparece na tela). O efeito, em si, é bastante circense e nem um pouco original. Mas, colocado num vídeo, leva-nos a pensar nas relações entre o recorte de mundo sempre significativo que é operado pela câmera e o fora de campo (“hors champ”), o qual – no entanto – continua presente no quadro em potência, atuando e construindo sentidos na relação com os elementos visíveis no plano. O efeito especificamente fílmico nos faz lembrar as experiências “mágicas” de Georges Meliès para as primeiras plateias do cinema, que tinham dificuldades em entender que uma parte do corpo “cortada” pelo enquadramento ainda estava lá, no mundo real, saudavelmente ligada ao todo.

Dog Duet (“Dueto de Cães”, 1975-1976, 2:38): dois simpáticos cachorros são enquadrados num plano de conjunto e de frente para a câmera, enquanto acompanham muito curiosamente com o olhar algum objeto que parece se movimentar na frente deles, seguindo a linha retangular do plano – o que já promove uma brincadeira com a bidimensionalidade da tela de video e suas relações com o tridimensional sugerido na imagem referencial que vemos dentro dela. Enquanto isso, vai aumentando a curiosidade e até mesmo a ansiedade do espectador; quando o objeto passa perto do chão, os cães chegam a esboçar um gesto para pegá-lo. No final, aparecerá uma mão em primeiro plano segurando uma bola de tênis. Mais uma vez, Wegman joga com as relações entre o que está dentro e o que se encontra fora de campo, desta vez chamando a atenção para os olhares e gestos dos dois animais imediatamente transformados em personagens de uma breve narrativa de suspense… Isso é quase o método hitchcockiano de se mostrar a reação no rosto do personagem (câmera objetiva) e, logo em seguida, fazer o espectador ver – com uma câmera subjetiva – o que aquele vê.

Randy’s Sick (“Randy Está Doente”, 1970-1971, 0:16): duas luminárias, uma grande e outra pequena (mas ambas com o mesmo design / modelo), estão colocadas frente a frente. A maior está quase na borda esquerda do quadro, e podemos ver uma mão que movimenta a sua “cabeça”, a qual diz (com voz logicamente em “off”): “Mãe, acho que o Randy está doente…” Então, a luminária pequena tomba para o lado… Agora, alguém se habilita a dizer que John Lasseter plagiou este video no famosíssimo e antológico Luxo Jr. (1986), animação computadorizada pioneira dos estúdios Pixar – cujo personagem principal ainda aparece na vinheta de abertura dos filmes da companhia? A semelhança é incrível, mas talvez seja melhor acreditar que qualquer olhar mais “poético” seria capaz de enxergar prosopopeias em certas formas de luminárias de cabeça redonda e corpo esbelto…

Spelling Lesson (“Lição de Ortografia”, 1973-1974, 0:49): um William Wegman profundamente compenetrado e sisudo está sentado à mesa com um cão, a quem dá lições de ortografia, corrigindo com o melhor ar professoral as palavras “escritas” pelo animal num caderno. O cômico neste video é a seriedade com que o “mestre” se dirige ao seu “aluno”; este, por sua vez, permanece com os olhos fixos no seu interlocutor, como se lhe prestasse a mais bem disposta atenção – o cão chega, até mesmo, a inclinar a cabeça em alguns momentos, como se se esforçasse em compreender a “matéria”. O clímax é quando, no meio das reprimendas do professor, o pobre animal emite um som de choro canino e inclina-se para lamber a face do seu dono, o qual se apressa em dizer – meio sem jeito – que perdoa os erros do “estudante”, mas que ele deverá se lembrar de acertar da próxima vez…
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source: kayrosblogru

Фото собак от фотографа William Wegman
Уильям Вегман родился в 2 декабря 1943 года, в городке Holyoke, штата Массачусетс, что в Соединенных штатах Америки. Он получил степень бакалавра изобразительных искусств и живописи, окончив в 1965 году Массачусетский колледж искусств, и степень магистра изящных искусств и живописи, обучаясь в Университете штата Иллинойс, в Урбана-Шампейн, в 1967 году.
После учебы, он начал преподавать в Университете штата Калифорния. Именно в это время он завел своего пса породы Веймаранер, которого назвал Мэн Рэй. Снимки этого пса в различных позах и костюмах настолько понравились публике, что в 1982 году нью-йоркская газета Village Voice назвала его пса “Человеком года”.

Кроме фото собак Уильям снимал фильмы с их участием, принимал участие в вечернем ток-шоу “The Tonight Show”, и детском шоу “Улица Сезам”. Широко известна его передача на канале Animal Planet под названием “Dogs 101″.
Работы Вегмана пользуются большой популярностью среди искусствоведов и коллекционеров. Его фото собак можно встретить в экспозициях таких музеев, как Hammer Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts и Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Фото собак от фотографа William Wegman
К сожалению поклонников других пород, среди фотографий Уильяма Вегмана, не найти вест хайленд фото или фото доберманов. Его любовью навсегда стали охотничью собаки породы Веймаранер или веймарская легавая.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source: momentitorinoblogspot

Americano, classe 1943, William Wegman è un artista noto per le foto che ritraggono cani, soprattutto il suo Weimaraners.
Wegman ha conseguito il Bachelor of Fine Arts in pittura al Massachusetts College of Art nel 1965 e un diploma di laurea in Master of Fine Arts in pittura dalla University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign nel 1967.
Mentre insegnava presso la California State University, Long Beach, acquisì il primo e più famoso dei cani che ha fotografato, un Weimaraner che chiamò Man Ray (come l’artista e fotografo). Man Ray divenne così popolare che il The Village Voice lo nominò “Uomo dell’anno” nel 1982 . Il suo successivo cane, fu chiamato Fay Ray (un gioco di parole sul nome dell’attrice Fay Wray).
I cani di Wegman fecero la prima apparizione sul Sesame Street nel 1989.
Il 29 gennaio 1992, Wegman apparve sul The Tonight Show con l’ospite d’onore Johnny Carson e mostrò un video clip “Dog Duet”, un corto, dal titolo 1975 di Man Ray e di un altro cane che si guardano intorno lentamente e misteriosamente. Wegman ha spiegato di aver realizzato il video muovendo intorno a loro una pallina da tennis, fuori camera, catturando così l’attenzione dei cani.
Le foto dell’artista sono famose in tutto il mondo e, vedendo gli scatti sul nostro blog, sicuramente ne avete ricordata qualcuna… Hanno riscosso successo popolare, e sono apparse in libri, pubblicità, film, oltre che in programmi televisivi come Sesame Street e Saturday Night Live.
Esposte nelle collezioni permanenti del Hammer Museum, del Los Angeles County Museum of Art, del Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts e allo Smithsonian American Art Museum, le foto si contraddistinguono per l’orginalità e per la sensabilità con cui l’animale viene ritratto. Colpiscono le espressioni, gli sguardi e la mobilità degli animali, protagonisti di una storia implicita, intuitiva, che ognuno di noi immagina, crea e apprezza. L’amore per gli animali si percepisce e la forza delle sue immagini sta nella grande capacità di mantenere quel giusto distacco critico che la rende un’opera artistica.
La serie più famosa è Polaroid del 2001.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source: swiatobrazupl

W cyklu “Fotografia na świecie” zapraszamy na kolejną odsłonę wizualnej podróży do Stanów Zjednoczonych. Tym razem spotkamy się z ważnymi postaciami dwudziestowiecznej fotografii, mistrzami portretu i poruszającego reportażu.

William Wegman

Ten multidyscyplinarny artysta łączy performance, sztukę wideo, malarstwo, a przede wszystkim fotografię. Najbardziej znany jest z cyklu frapujących portretów przedstawiających psy. Do portretów pozowały Wegmanowi jego wyżły, w tym najsłynniejszy – Man Ray, nazwany tak na cześć słynnego surrealisty. Zdjęcia zyskały sobie taką sławę, że Man Ray został mianowany przez The Village Voice… “Człowiekiem Roku 1982”. Fotografie Wegmana, zaskakujące, przewrotne i pełne ironii trafiły nie tylko do muzeów i galerii, ale również do obiegu popkulturowego, a sam Wegman współpracował m.in. z Ulicą Sezamkową.