Exhibition Duration: July 27–September 13, 2024

Venue: Shanghai Fosun Foundation

The Fourth Bund Art Season, jointly organized by Fosun Foundation, the Bund Financial Center, and Yuyuan Garden Malls, will be unveiled across the Greater Yuyuan Gardens Cultural District on July 27. In conjunction with the festival, Fosun Foundation will present the unique aesthetic of William Wegman's photographs on the foundation's first floor. The exhibition will feature the artist’s most representative works made in collaboration with his dogs. The large format Polaroid 20 x 24 camera, an important medium in the artist’s oeuvre, will also meet the public in Shanghai for the first time during this exhibition.

You may not have heard the name William Wegman, but you have certainly seen his portraits of dogs in sunglasses, hats, and various outfits with seemingly human expressions. These classics are the work of William Wegman. This American artist born in 1943 began collaborating with his dog “Man Ray” in the 1970s. This Weimaraner named after one of the greatest photographic artists of the twentieth century quickly entered the public’s field of vision, known for his endearing, deadpan appearance. When Man Ray died in 1982, he was named “Person of the Year” by the Village Voice. In 1986, Wegman emerged from mourning to begin working with a new collaborator, Fay Ray, and later her offspring. These muses with their rich personalities quickly gave rise to a series of children’s books and photography books, including the bestselling Puppies and Being Human. These puppies became stars, making the covers of such magazines as The New Yorker and Wallpaper*, and appearing on programs such as David Letterman and The Tonight Show. On calendars, postcards, posters, and New York Subway signs, Wegman's art truly escaped the confines of the art museum and entered into everyday life, where it spread far and wide, bringing joy everywhere it went.

Cursive Display, 2013

©️William Wegman Studio

White Out, 2014

©️William Wegman Studio

The dogs in Wegman's photos are his friends and family, as well as his collaborators. These surreal, captivating portraits capture a wide range of moments in the lives of these dogs, but unlike the cute innocence of most dogs, most of them appear profoundly solemn, even cold. This confounding expression breaks down traditional notions of solemnity in art, parking reflection and soul searching about the mysterious universe beyond our own subjective will opened up by animal creations. Animals live shorter lives than humans, and for this reason Wegman has said he is always in a hurry when he works. He has described it as racing against a ticking clock, the hands visibly moving as he works.

Tall, 2017

©️William Wegman Studio

Untitled, 1999

©️William Wegman Studio

In 1986, Wegman began using a 20 x 24 Polaroid camera to photograph Fay Ray and her offspring, and would continue to do so until Polaroid stopped producing film in 2007. Wegman has likened the process of working in front of this massive 107 kilogram, 1.7-meter-tall camera to performance. Everything about the 20 x 24 Polaroid camera, from its complex operations to the sheer materiality of the large format pictures it produces, are markers of the realness of Wegman's creations, testaments that these are not the products of post-production. Meanwhile, the irreproducibility of the Polaroid instant film, its unpredictability, and even its “destructiveness” have brought surprising results to Wegman's work. The large 50 x 60cm format, which is difficult to capture in other mediums such as catalogues or books, is also part of what the artist wants, achieving a kind of “anti-image” effect. For this exhibition, one of only six remaining operable 20x24 Polaroid cameras in the world will be brought to the exhibition site, so viewers can experience the allure of giant format photography for themselves.

Mondo Bizarro, 1994

©️William Wegman Studio

Looking Right, 2015

©️William Wegman Studio

How do we maintain a spirit of curiosity and exploration? What are the diverse relationships between humans and animals like? This exhibition is more than just a presentation of artistic inspiration. It is a continuation of Fosun Foundation’s longstanding emphasis on and exploration of the intersections between art and life, urging audiences to pay greater attention to the everyday things around them, and to establish richer conceptual and emotional connections to them. Echoing the exhibition’s theme, Fosun Foundation will organize special dog visiting hours at night, inviting viewers to bring their dogs with them to create beautiful memories of life with pets.

The warm, therapeutic embrace of pets is coming, and the 2024 Bund Art Festival promises to be a therapeutic journey of the arts, carrying out new explorations of the intersections between art and life. During the festival, BFC will join with leading pet influencers from RED in sending out a call for photograph submissions, while famed artist and comic illustrator Tango will create large-scale installation's representing famous Internet dogs, creating a “BFC doggie street.” The BFC Weekend Market will be transformed into an art power station, with five art markets held in a row presenting emerging artists and illustrators to hold live graffiti collaborations and flash classes in illustration. Meanwhile, “Summer Days at Yuyuan Garden” will return to Yuyuan Garden Mall starting July 5, with digital technology creating an all-new immersive park experience. A giant AR “Lucky Cat” by Tango will appear at the Yuyuan Garden Mall Golden Plaza. Scanning the art installation on your phone will make coins appear in the air, with interactive technology bringing visitors together and breathing life into this cultural landmark.

About William Wegman

Bill with Topper and Flo, 2015

Photograph by Jason Burch

William Wegman was born in 1943 in Holyoke, Massachusetts. He received a B.F.A. in painting from the Massachusetts College of Art, Boston in 1965, and an M.F.A. in painting from the University of Illinois, Champagne-Urbana in 1967. From 1968 to 1970, he taught at the University of Wisconsin. In the fall of 1970, he moved to Southern California where he taught for one year at California State College, Long Beach. In 1971, he moved to Santa Monica. By the early 70s, Wegman’s work was being exhibited in museums and galleries internationally. In addition to solo shows with Sonnabend Gallery in Paris and New York, Situation Gallery in London and Konrad Fisher Gallery in Dusseldorf, his work was included in such seminal exhibitions as “When Attitudes Become Form,” at the Kunsthalle Bern in 1969, and “Documenta V” in Kassel in 1972. His work was regularly featured in Interfunktionen, Artforum and Avalanche magazines.

It was while he was in Long Beach that Wegman got his dog, a Weimaraner who he named Man Ray, and began a long and fruitful collaboration. Man Ray, known in the art world and beyond for his endearing deadpan presence, became a central figure in Wegman’s photographs and videotapes. When Man Ray died in 1982 he was named “Man of the Year” by the Village Voice. It was not until 1986 that Wegman got a new dog, Fay Ray, and another collaboration began marked by Wegman’s extensive use of the Polaroid 20 x 24 camera. With the birth of Fay’s litter in 1989, Wegman’s cast of grew to include Fay’s offspring—Battina, Crooky and Chundo—and later, their offspring: Battina’s son Chip in 1995, Chip’s son Bobbin in 1999 and Candy and Bobbin’s daughter Penny in 2004. Out of Wegman’s involvement with this cast of characters grew a series of children's’ books inspired by the dogs’ various acting abilities: Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, ABC, Mother Goose, Farm Days, My Town, Surprise Party, and Chip Wants a Dog. Wegman has also published a number of books for adults including Man’s Best Friend, Fashion Photographs, William Wegman 20 x 24, The New York Times Bestseller Puppies, Fay, William Wegman: Paintings, Being Human, and William Wegman: Writing by Artist, edited by Andrew Lampert.

Wegman has created film and video works for Saturday Night Live and Nickelodeon and his video segments for Sesame Street have appeared regularly since 1989. In 1995, Wegman’s film The Hardly Boys was screened at the Sundance Film Festival. Wegman has been commissioned to create images for a wide range of projects including a fashion campaign for Acne, banners for the Metropolitan Opera and covers for numerous publications including The New Yorker, Wallpaper*, and, most recently, French Vogue. Wegman has appeared on The Tonight Show both with Johnny Carson and with Jay Leno, The David Letterman Show, and The Colbert Report.

Numerous retrospectives of Wegman’s work have toured Europe, Asia and the United States including: “Wegman’s World,” at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis in 1981; “William Wegman: Paintings, Drawings, Photographs, Videotapes,” which opened at the Kunstmuseum, Lucerne in 1990, and traveled to venues across Europe and the United States including the Centre Pompidou, Paris, and The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; “Funney/Strange,” which opened at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 2006, and made its final stop at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, in the fall of 2007. “Hello Nature” opened at the Bowdoin Museum of Art in 2012 and traveled to Artipelag in Stockholm, Sweden. Recent museum exhibitions have included “Before/On/After: William Wegman and California Conceptualism” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and “Being Human,” a large-scale survey of over thirty years of Wegman’s photographic work which began a four-year international tour after opening at the Rencontres d’Arles in the summer of 2018.

William Wegman lives in New York and Maine where he continues to paint, draw, make videos and take photographs with his dog Flo.