"Weimaraner World"

Sherri Geldin: I think this is the first time we’ve had an artist-in-residence come back many years later and be featured throughout the galleries of the center, so being able to now share with the Columbus public the broad array of Wegman's work, across video and photography and drawing and painting and collage, is really wonderful and it is in keeping with the Center’s mandate to retain a kind of ongoing relationship with artists over the course of their careers.

William Wegman: I understand there was a major renovation so everything's kind of spruced up, but it's really a fun building and I think it suits my work really well. When I was here 13 or 14 years ago I got to see this building, which I think dominated my mind.

Geldin: I think that what the public will find is an artist who has mastered many different media and who has a kind of sensibility that is an everyman sensibility. This is not someone who puts art or himself on a pedestal.

Wegman: When I come and I see my dogs that have come and gone, it's very touching. You know, I get kind of warmed up to see them living on in people's minds anyway.

Geldin: Because we imagine this exhibition will have such broad appeal we have made a concerted effort to ensure that everyone in the community is aware of it. So, the enormous wallscapes that have appeared downtown at various venues, the kind of outreach that we have been doing. Wexner Center exhibitions through the public system. Also providing tours to the general public on specific days and times throughout the week.

William Wegman is best known for his Polaroid photographs of Weimaraners, campy art that often features dogs donning wigs and gowns. The Weimaraners have been pop culture staples since the 70s, familiar to audiences of everything from Sesame Street to late-night TV.

But other aspects of Wegman's art are lesser known--for instance, his work incorporating kitschy postcards into paintings, the media in which he began his career as an artist.

Wegman's full range--video, drawings, paintings, and photographs as well as the Weimaraner art--is on display at the Wexner Center through December. The multimedia exhibition "Funney/Strange," named after a 1982 black-and-white Wegman drawing, features works from "1970 to three weeks ago."

Wegman has been to the Wex, as artist in residence in 1992.

“Whether young or old, serious art fan or casual dog lover, nature enthusiast or savvy urban sophisticate, you are sure to find something that intrigues and amuses you.”
—Sherri Geldin, director of the Wexner Center

"This is the first time we've had an artist come back many years later and be featured throughout the galleries in the center," says Sherri Geldin, the Wexner Center's director. "Wegman was invited in 1992 in connection with his video work."

Wegman's work has an "everyman sensibility" that appeals to not only connoisseurs of contemporary art, but also dog lovers, children, and casual art fans, Geldin says. "This is not someone who puts art or himself on a pedestal."

Until Wegman's exhibition ends at the Wexner Center on December 30, the center will host several related events.

"We consider Bill an artist of national and international importance," Geldin says. "The venues, up until now, have been largely on the east coast. We were very pleased, as was Bill, for this exhibition to be at the Wexner Center, to be in the midwest. We expect that it will attract visitors from throughout the state and most likely from contiguous states as well."

(text: University Marketing Communications)