From WW: On painting with postcards

William Wegman, In Ramada Inn, 2016

I've been using postcards in may paintings since the 1990s. My selections have evolved over the years. When I began it was interesting to connect two disparate scenes, adding a third and a fourth. In some cases I used scores of cards to create a new and enveloping space.   

I preferred the cards  that had no borders so I could make them disappear. In these paintings the eye could drift from one card to the next seamlessly. Horizon lines became irregular and at times references to cubism emerged. Later it became interesting to capture the card  perspective and construct a more convincing whole. Interior scenes with picture windows (and pictures in frames) could be created.  Museum spaces were alluded to at times. As a challenge I made a conscious effort to use cards with borders and strong graphic divisions within them to construct another kind of space -- a kind of modernist reference to Kandinsky, Stuart Davis, Mondrian, Leger, and others.  

As always the painting starts easily and finished slow.  Like all painters I worry about the upper left hand corner and the lower right. My problems may be solved by finding just the right card and that invokes shuffling through my considerable and unorganized collection. I tend to stay away from really beautiful collectable cards. Out of respect.

For more on WW's postcard paintings, have a look at the new book William Wegman: Painting, which features essays from Bob Elliott, Martin Filler, Amy Hempel, Robert Krulwich, and Susan Orlean.

Comments

[Luísa Araujo Cardoso dos Santos]

Dear Willian Wegman,

First of all, I’d like to introduce myself: my name is Luísa Araujo, I work at Grupo Autêntica’s contracts and foreign rights department. We are a Brazilian publishing group with 18 years of experience in the market.( http://grupoautentica.com.br/ )

We are working on the production of a philosophy textbook for Brazilian’s high school students, and I am writing to you make a consult about the rights for the image The "Wegmarainer in Coats", copyrighted to you, which goes as a mention in one of the sections of our book.

We’d like to have your authorization for this reference and, in addition to this, we kindly ask you to let us know how we should include the credits related to the image’s use.

We thank you very much in advance and, please, let us know if you have any further questions. My email is [email protected] .

With our very best regards,

Luísa Araujo Cardoso dos Santos