William Wegman's Weimaraners star in an exhibition in Lugano

The Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana in Lugano will host from Sept. 8, 2019, to Jan. 6, 2020, the exhibition William Wegman. Being Human, curated by William A. Ewing.

The protagonists of the American photographer ’s shots are his dogs, particularly his Weimaraners: since the 1970s, starting with his first Weimaraner named Man Ray, Wegman has represented through the specimens of this breed characters, fashion trends and movements of art history with acumen and irony.

Snapshots taken with a Polaroid camera, unretouched, that enhance the spontaneity of Man Ray, Fay Ray, Penny, Bobbin, Chip, Chundo, Crooky and their pups, as well as the skill of the photographer-a 30-year artistic collaboration.

The curator selected ninety large-format Polaroids for the exhibition to create an exhibition itinerary divided into chapters, each collecting works of related subjects. The People like us section shows portraits of human types interpreted by dogs, such as the dandy, the priest, the astronaut, and the lady with a perm.

The Tales section brings together historical and contemporary portraits influenced by literary and film references. Paradoxical and grotesque disguises are noted in Zoo and Masquerades: dogs hidden behind a mask or stage costume take on the appearance of other animals or dog breeds.

The Nudes section collects photographs in which the athletic and agile body of the dog becomes a material structure for abstract compositions, while in Hallucinations there is a complete fading of the body and its form: the subjects are transfigured into ghostly presences.
Photos from the Vogue series trace decades of fashion history, while with the Cubists section we reach artistic citationism, where Weimaramers are immortalized balancing on cubes and parallelepipeds. In Color fields, four-legged intrusions serve the function of disrupting the chromatic order and separating different color fields.
Finally, the interplay of balance and geometrisim is taken up in the last section Sit/Stay, in which dogs, lying or standing, are seen holding various objects in balance.

Being Human is a project of the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography, Minneapolis/ New York/ Paris/ Lausanne in collaboration with the Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana. The Lugano event is the first stop on a tour of European museums sponsored by the Foundation.

For info: www.masilugano.ch

Hours: Tuesday through Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Thursday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Closed Mondays.

Image: William Wegman, Constructivism (2014; pigment print, 111.7 x 145.6 cm) ©William Wegman

William Wegman's Weimaraners star in an exhibition in Lugano

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