Release Date: Contact: Alexia Davis
November 30, 2006 561.832.5196 ext. 1183
davisa@norton.org


William Wegman: Funney/Strange, a Retrospective Exploring Forty Years of Art
On Display November 4, 2006 Through January 28, 2007

West Palm Beach, Fl – The Norton Museum of Art is pleased to announce William Wegman: Funney/Strange. The exhibition will open to the public November 4, 2006 and includes more than 200 works, among them the signature 20 x 24 Polaroids, as well as early black-and-white altered photographs, paintings, drawings, collages, artist books, videos, and film. Throughout his career William Wegman has moved seamlessly among these various forms of media; from conceptual works to commissioned magazine shots, from video work to television segments, from artist’s books to children's books, from photographic "landscapes" employing his dogs to his most recent series of paintings that incorporate scenic postcards with drawing, collage, and paint. Yet, underlying all of Wegman’s work is the light humor of "funny" mediating the darker human comedy of "strange."

Born in Holyoke, Massachusetts in 1943, Wegman received a BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, and an MFA from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. In Illinois and later in Wisconsin, he began to experiment with a wide range of media—film, kinetic sculpture, installation, and performance. While teaching at California State College in Long Beach in the 1970s, Wegman developed what was to be his mature artistic voice expressed in his signature media of photography, video, and text. It was in California that he acquired his canine muse Man Ray and began to include the dog in both photographs and video. By the fall of 1972 he moved to New York where he has remained ever since, applying his quirky and unpredictable imagination and expansive artistic appetite to a career that has been far-ranging, all-embracing, and provocative.

Beloved by the general public and held in critical esteem within the international art world, Wegman fascinates both for much the same reasons: his smart, gently subversive humor that destabilizes the familiar to reveal life’s essential oddity. An adventurous painter, prolific writer, and masterful video artist and photographer, Wegman is able to navigate between art that amuses and surprises and art that challenges and transforms. This exhibition will bring

together classic Wegman images with rarely exhibited material and surprising new work to reveal the full range and savvy voice of this remarkable artist’s production.

Exhibition Catalog: William Wegman: Funney/Strange, an extensive publication, written by scholar and critic Joan Simon and published by Yale University Press in association with the Addison Gallery of American Art will accompany the exhibition. Available in the Museum Store.

Exhibition Cost/Hours:

Adults $12
Visitors age 13-21 $5
Children 12 and under Admission is free
Members Free tickets based on Membership Level
Adult Group Tours $10
School Group Tours Free

Monday–Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m. (Closed Mondays May through October and on major holidays.)

Visitor Information:
For general information, please call (561) 832-5196 or visit www.norton.org.

Café 1451 at the Norton:
Lunch is served Monday through Saturday from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. --drinks, wine, cheese and desserts are served until 4:00 pm. (Closed Mondays May through October and on major holidays.) On Sunday the full menu is served from 1:00 to 4:00 pm. Admission to the Museum is not required and free parking is available at the Museum or in the West Parking Lot located on South Dixie Highway. For reservations for all size groups please call (561) 366-8500 or e-mail cafe1451@lyonandlyon.com.

Exhibition support: William Wegman: Funney/Strange was organized by the Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts and guest curated by independent curator Trevor Fairbrother. Generous support for the exhibition and publication was provided by The Henry Luce Foundation.

This exhibition at the Norton Museum of Art is made possible in part through the generosity of Melvin and Claire Levine, The Contemporary and Modern Art Council of the Norton Museum of Art, Starbucks Coffee Company, The Milton and Sheila Fine Endowment for Contemporary Art, the Dr. Henry and Lois Foster Endowment, and the Mr. and Mrs. Hamish Maxwell Exhibition Endowment.

Media Support provided by The Palm Beach Post and the Palm Beach Daily News.


The Norton Museum of Art is open Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m. (Closed Mondays from May through October and on major holidays.) General admission is $8 for adults, $3 for visitors ages 13-21, and free for Members and children under 13. West Palm Beach residents receive free admission to the permanent collection every Saturday, with proof of residency. Palm Beach County residents receive free admission to the permanent collection the first Saturday of each month, with proof of residency. An additional charge may apply for special exhibitions. For general information, please call (561) 832-5196