Exhibition: William Wegman, Please Stand By: Drawings for a Better Tomorrow and a Worse Yesterday

Please Stand By: Drawings for a Better Tomorrow and a Worse Yesterday

William Wegman lived and worked in Los Angeles in the early 70s, a pioneer in the developing medium of video art and a key figure, along with such artists as John Baldessari, Ed Ruscha and Al Ruppersberg, in what came to be known as West Coast Conceptual art. His dog at the time, a Weimaraner named Man Ray, insisted on being a part of whatever it was Wegman was working on at the studio and thus began a collaboration with his dogs which has continued to this day. William Wegman: Drawings for a Better Tomorrow and a Worse Yesterday curated by Julia Brennan ’17 and Lola Wegman ’19 brings together a selection of Wegman’s videos from the 70s and a collection of works on paper—drawings, collages, and altered photographs--which reveal the humor and strange logic which inform so much of his work.

Wegman began producing short, performance-oriented videotapes in the early 1970s which are considered classics. Using sight gags, minimalist performance and his own special dead pan humor Wegman's video work reveals the absurd inspiration to be found in everything from art to advertising. Recorded as single takes in real time, “Wegman uses portable video’s intimacy and low tech immediacy to create narrative comedy.” Describing the process behind his tapes, Wegman says, “I present a situation and develop some kind of explanation around it. By the time the story is over you get to know why that particular prop or mannerism was displayed.”

 In his drawings [he] can deal with really far-fetched content, subjects that are awkward for photo or video recording,” he has said. “Drawing opened up a realm of possibilities.”