William Wegman: Video Tapes, Photographic Works, Arrangements

William Wegman
William Wegman: Video Tapes, Photographic Works, Arrangements
Claremont, USA: Pomona College Art Galery, 1971
32 pp., 38 b&w illustrations, staple-bound
Edition size unknown


The first monograph on the work of William Wegman is a slim catalogue published to accompany the artist's 1971 one-person exhibition of photographs and video works at the Pomona College Art Gallery. The show was curated by Helene Winer, who contributes a text to the catalogue, which also includes a chronology and exhibition history.

"The photographic works are either single or in series of two or more, and fall into several categories. In the works that explore sameness vs. difference, Wegman compares superficially identical items, or twins to emphasize the enormous subtle differences that are naturally present. His works that deal with sameness vs. change concentrate on manipulated differences. The changes are such that the composition as a whole appears the same in all the photographs of a series. This is most surprising in one set of photographs, using objects in the artist's studio. where the altered details are extensive. Almost every item in the scene is in duplicate in one of the two photographs. The comparison of "big and little" in Wegman's terms, involves the use of objects whose only essential difference is size. One such work is a photograph of the artist, posed with various tools. He 1s standing next to a larger man of some resemblance who is holding the same but larger tools in a similar arrangement. The shadow of a duck that appears to be cast on the wall by a crow, in another work, represents the incongruities present in many of Wegman's single photographic pieces."

- Lucy Lippard, Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966 to 1972

The rare title is available from Jeff Hirsch Books, for $100, here.