William Wegman, the”dog artist”

 

William Wegman est peintre, vidéaste et photographe. Photographié dans dans des vêtements et des attitudes très humaines, son chien, Man Ray, en hommage au célèbre photographe, est au centre de son oeuvre .

William Wegman a publié de nombreux livres photographiques pour enfants , abécédaires, livres à compter et réadaptation de contes populaires,  Little Red Riding Hood (Le Petit Chaperon rouge  ) ou Cindirella ( Cendrillon), dans lesquels les successeurs de Man Ray jouent les personnages. L’humour y est souvent au rendez-vous comme lorsque le chien-petit chaperon rouge dit au loup “Grand mother, she said, you look different” et “What big ears you have !”

Dans sa série Flo & Wendell, il combine photographie et peinture.

Sur le blog de l’artiste :

http://www.wegmanworld.com/about-the-artist/

“William Wegman was born in 1943, in a small town in Massachusetts. He spent most of his time in the woods with his dog Wags, looking for rabbits, squirrels, deer, and chickadees. He fished, built tree houses, searched for quicksand, and painted watercolors with his mother. He loved the Hardy Boys, a series of mystery novels, and stayed up late reading them by flashlight. In school, he was shy, and known for his artwork.

Thanks to the encouragement of his high school art teacher, Mrs. Laramee, Wegman went to art school where he studied painting. He then went to graduate school and became interested in many things besides painting. He began doing performance art, and making videos, some of which featured his first Weimaraner Man Ray. Soon he began taking photographs, too, first starting with making black-and-white prints, and then experimenting with an enormous Polaroid camera the size of a refrigerator.

After Man Ray, he adopted a dog he called Fay Ray, and began photographing her using the Polaroid camera. Fay had puppies, Fay’s puppies had puppies, and Wegman photographed, and made videos, of them all. He made a series of children’s books, beginning with fairy tales: Cinderella and Red Riding Hood. His videos were featured on Sesame Street.

During this time with Fay, and her daughter Batty, Wegman began painting again, finding subject matters similar to the guide books and encyclopedias he had pored over as a child. Over the next few years, the paintings evolved and he began using images he found, like pages from books, images from magazines, and postcards.

Now, Wegman continues to paint and take photographs of his dogs Bobbin, Candy, Flo and Topper, who were the inspiration for his new book. Flo & Wendell combines Wegman’s photographs and his painting, and was inspired by his dogs Flo and Topper.”

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