Recirculating Cheese

After picking up Kylie from school today, we went the mile or so up the road to the Addison Gallery of American Art for the William Wegman retrospective show Funney/Strange.

I was aware of the dog pictures - who isn't? - but being largely ignorant of the contemporary Art world, I was unaware of the depth and breadth of his work. A lot of his drawings and paintings didn't do anything for me, but many did, and most of his photography and video work did as well. The things that resonated for me tended to be the ones that turn your perceptions sideways. He has a large body of recent paintings based around postcards or greeting cards, expanding the scene in new and different directions, like a "dogs playing poker" postcard turned into a Last Supper scene, or (my favorite) postcards of the New York Stock Exchange and the Wailing Wall, stiched together into a seamless crowd scene.

Even the dog photos tend to have more going on than mere poses and dress-up, like the triptych of dog backs and rumps, looking like large rocks on a seashore. Or the 5-part picture of a dog lying on its back, each part matted and set enough apart from the others to invite you to consider the shapes and textures as abstract from the dog as a whole.

And it's all so big (e.g. the polaroids are all 20" x 24"). I bought the book, but you lose a lot of the detail (and impact) in the reduction. (And you art fiends are rolling your eyes, and saying "duh".) Elsewhere in the gallery, among the rotating display of their permanent collection, there's a Jackson Pollack piece; what the books and photos fail to show you is the incredible texture of his work. This is why we have art museums, and not just art books.

Anyway, the exhibit has been open for almost two months, and I'm embarrassed that I haven't gotten to it before, considering the number of times I drive by the gallery. But it's running for another two months, and it's free, with free street parking.