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Art lovers who own dogs, and dog owners who love art should be especially attracted to Being Human, the show at MASI Lugano (Museo d’arte della Svizzera Italiana) that opened on September 9, 2019 and runs through January 6, 2020.
Regular habituées of MASI should be drawn to the show’s artist, William Wegman, whose conceptual work has been featured in international exhibitions since 1969. Dog people who are familiar with Wegman will delight in the focus of this particular show. The irony of its name stems from its subject matter — Weimaraners.
You don’t have to be a fan of these supremely elegant silver-grey dogs to recognize them as Wegman’s muse for more than 40 years. He has been an artist for a decade longer than he has been a dog owner, but his international reputation soared when he began collaborating with his first Weim.
Man Ray, named for the avant-garde artist, came into Wegman’s life in 1971, when the Massachusetts-born painter moved to California. “My then-wife wanted a handsome short-haired dog,” he explains. “We didn’t know anything about dogs and were thinking of a Dalmatian. Then someone offered us the last in a litter of Weimaraners for the sum of $35, and we said yes.”
Man Ray was only six weeks old when he came to live with Wegman. That young age, plus the fact that Weims tend to bond…
