I rarely ride the F or M lines of the New York City subway, but when I did recently I was treated to a classic stare down from a pack of William Wegman’s Weimaraners!
(Weim owners know what I’m talking about! Crazy Weim Eyes!)
These mosaics, collectively called Stationary Figures, were installed in 2018. You can find them in the 23 Street Station at Sixth Avenue. They feature Wegman’s Weims, Topper and Flo.
Wegman lives and works in Chelsea. You often see him walking his pack of Weims around town. At one point we used to take Bodhi to the same vet as Wegman.
During my recent visit to Miami last year for Art Basel and Miami Art Week, I met a representative of Franz Mayer of Munich, the 150-year-old German company that creates stained glass works of art and mosaics. They are the people who crafted these mosaics. It took six months to transfer Wegman’s work to the walls of the station. The rep and I had a long talk about all the mosaics they have made for the New York Subway system. She said her favorites were the Wegman mosaics in the 23 Street station.
The detail in the mosaics is amazing! Just look at the eye above and the nose below. I started counting the tesserae in the photo above and pooped out at 75 and I hadn’t even made through a quarter of the image.
Weimaraners got a big boost in popularity back in the 1950s when President Eisenhower and actress Grace Kelly owned “Grey Ghosts.”
But they probably achieved their biggest fame due to the popularity of Wegman’s photos. He has famously been photographing his Weimaraners for more than 40 years. Click here to see more of his work. Some of his most well-known work was for Sesame Street!
If you ask me, I think Bodhi would make a great Wegman model!