Courtesy photo.
William Wegman, best known for his images of Weimaraner dogs, will speak about his pioneering work in painting, drawing, photography, and video, beginning with his start in California in the 1970s.
SANTA BARBARA — Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA) presents William Wegman and an Introduction to His Art at 11 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 19 at SBMA’s Mary Craig Auditorium, 1130 State St., Santa Barbara.
About William Wegman
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. In 1971 He moved to Santa Monica. 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 inInterfunktionen, Artforum and Avalanche magazines.
It was while he was in Long Beach that Wegman got his dog, a Weimaraner who he named Man Ray, and 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. When Man Ray died in 1982 he was named “Man of the Year” by the Village Voice. 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.
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. In 1995, Wegman’s film The Hardly Boys was screened at the Sundance Film Festival. Numerous retrospectives of Wegman’s work have toured Europe, Asia and the United States.
Free Students and Teachers (with valid ID)/$10 SBMA Members/$15 Non-Members
Get tickets at tickets.sbma.net