famous dogs

 

    

    I love how William Wegman's work is both serious, respectable art, and comedic at the same time. His work is in the permanent collections of museums, and also Sesame Street. It's art that's accessible to the public, and I think that's part of what makes him so successful. I think Wegman's work displays the amusement we all get from our own pets, but on a grander scale. Most pet-owners I can think of have dressed up their pets for giggles, and Wegman takes that impulse we all have and makes wonderful art out of it! That could be what makes people respond to his work the way they do, and what makes it so universally appealing. I also love the contrast of how serious and still the dogs are, with the ridiculous costumes they are wearing.

    Something else that struck me was how it compares with our age of social media, full of cat videos and dog pictures. What others now make using photoshop, Wegman made in the '70s with actual props. I was amazed at how still the dogs sat, and how well Wegman was able to manipulate the clothes so it really seemed like the dogs wore them. It shows how over the years, humanity doesn't change much. We all still love silly dog pictures.