Untitled (“I know tomorrow is your day off…”)

William Wegman

1970–71 · Typewritten text and graphite on paper · Modern and Contemporary Art

In Wegman’s photographs, videos, and drawings of the late 1960s and 70s, pithy, often humorous actions are staged for the viewer and recorded by photographic medium or simple no. 2 pencils. After a few years teaching in Madison, Wisconsin, after graduate school, Wegman moved to Los Angeles in 1970, where he joined a cohort of other young artists interested in the burgeoning field of conceptual art. In California, these included Ed Ruscha, John Baldessari, and Allen Ruppersberg, for example, all of whom made use of language or signage in their works of the time. In Wegman’s typewriter drawings of 1970–71, a semi-autobiographical narrator relates unrelated episodes that often end with a twist, word play, or some other playful turn.

Artist

William Wegman

Date

1970–71

Medium

Typewritten text and graphite on paper

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

Gift of the artist, 2017