Four stunning, funny images from the brand new “Untitled (Flying Dog)’’ series are included in “William Wegman: Inside/Outside,’’ a delightful exhibit Landry and Keough have organized at Panopticon. The four describe an arc as a Weimaraner, almost as fluid as a drop of mercury but with more personality, rises into the air against a warm sepia background and begins to descend.
Wegman has been photographing Weimaraners for more than 30 years. The images receive popular acclaim because the dogs — gorgeous, velvety beasts — express such soulfulness and naked trust, and because Wegman often does witty and surprising things with them. That’s what folks relate to and laugh at. But Wegman’s acute attention to form makes his work art rather than greeting-card fodder, and the flying dogs are a perfect example. They stretch, gather, and fold, each reading like a Japanese Zen master’s calligraphic stroke.
“Inside/Outside’’ features 38 enchanting prints, some shot in the studio, others outdoors. “Washed Up’’ features two dogs lying on the beach, eyes closed, one with a leg draped over the other. They’re almost human, but their tone and contours are not unlike those of the rocks in the background. In “Psycho,’’ a gray dog peeks out from behind textured glass (the kind you find in a shower door), eyes wide, a canine Janet Leigh.
Each shoot is a collaborative and improvisational performance. That sounds chaotic, but Wegman’s photos distill the chaos into form, relationship, and narrative, and into art just about everyone can appreciate.
Gripping camera work
The Boston Young Contemporaries Exhibition is always something to be sorted through, a giant show with a wide range of work, some of it drearily unrealized, some of it fresh and exciting. This year, the juried show spotlights 80 artists in 11 Master of Fine Art and post-baccalaureate programs from around New England.
