shoot of some salami. At that point,
he walked away from complicated
installation art philosophy, moving
to Los Angeles to “draw” by video
camera. By pure chance, his Weima-
raner dog Man Ray wandered into
this pursuit, and that fortunate
event was to focus much of Weg-
man’s career.
Wegman took off with Man Ray
to New York and began capturing
the public’s attention with his work.
Having earned him a Guggenheim
Fellowship and a grant from the Na-
tional Endowment for the Arts,
Wegman’s vision picked up steam.
By the mid-1970’s, galleries were of-
fering him shows, and the comedy
programSaturday Night Liveplayed
his video shorts. By the end of 1982, Wegman had
suffered the loss of both the dog and most of his
work in a fire, but he had also become beloved as a
photographer. Unafraid of technology, he mastered
Polaroid’s large and complex 20" × 24" camera, the
hallmark of his crisp work with future generations of
Weimaraners.
During the 1980’s and 1990’s, detailed dog pho-
tos formed the basis for books (and spin-off calen-
dars and such) for both children and adults, and
Wegman worked considerably with video during the
1990’s. His art has been shown at museums around
the world, including the Kunstmuseum, Centre
Pompidou, Whitney Museum of American Art,
Hammer Museum, Smithsonian American Art Mu-
seum, Brooklyn Museum, and Addison Gallery of
American Art. Television programs such asThe To-
night Show Starring Johnny CarsonandSesame Streetas
well as the cable channel Nickelodeon have featured
his videos—indicative of his appeal to both the
young and grown-ups.
Wegman has been married to Gayle Lewis (until
1978) and Laurie Jewell (until 1982), and he resides
in Maine and New York, married to Christine Bur-
gin. He has two children, Lola and Atlas.
Impact Wegman’s sardonic portraits of Weima-
raners have delighted viewers while at the same time
slipped in an ironic but gentle statement about
American culture.
Further Reading
Kunz, Martin, ed.William Wegman: Paintings, Draw-
ings, Photographs, Videotapes. New York: Harry N.
Abrams, 1994.
Wegman, William.20 x 24.New York: Harry N.
Abrams, 2002.
Jan HallSee also Art movements; Children’s television; In-
dependent films; National Endowment for the Arts
(NEA); Photography. Weil, Andrew
Identification American author, doctor, and
ethnobotanist
Born June 8, 1942; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
During the 1990’s, Weil became a leader and major spokesper-
son of the alternative medicine movement. His concept of inte-
grative medicine, explained in popular books written for gen-
eral audiences, became ver y influential during this period.
Andrew Weil, known and respected in the alterna-
tive medicine community for his work on natural
medicine and drugs in the 1970’s and 1980’s, began
to reach much larger audiences in the 1990’s. After
years of researching traditional medicines, he advo-
cated the use of traditional and holistic approaches
as complementary rather than oppositional to West-
ern medicine, a field in which he has also qualified,The Nineties in America Weil, Andrew 909
Photographer William Wegman, flanked by his two Weimaraners in Portland, Maine,
in 1996.(AP/Wide World Photos)