William Wegman
Bathroom Rug

Bathroom Rug

© 1972 William Wegman

Bathroom Rug
Bathroom Rug
ArtistAmerican, born 1943
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Bathroom Rug
Date1972, collaged 1975
PlaceUnited States
MediumGelatin silver print, collaged 1975
DimensionsImage: 7 9/16 × 7 1/2 in. (19.2 × 19.1 cm)
 Sheet: 13 11/16 × 10 13/16 in. (34.8 × 27.5 cm)
 Mount: 13 11/16 × 10 13/16 in. (34.8 × 27.5 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase partially funded by the National Endowment for the Arts
Object number78.17
Not on view

Explore Further

Department
Photography
Object Type
DescriptionBathroom Rug is a typical scenario from William Wegman's work of the early 1970s. The image shows the artist sweeping dust under the rug, which hilariously stretches up to help.  Look carefully and you can see where the artist cut and pasted the image of the rug.



Indeed, patently staged, manipulated photographs like this one undercut the documentary function of photography.  Wegman, together with Robert Cumming and other Los Angeles artists, specialized in such images and often invented absurd narratives to accompany them.  Cumming commented: "People in the early 1970s, not yet being hip to this kind of artificiality, would accept a photograph as truth more readily than people do today. . . .  Then, though, there was a veracity that was fairly unquestioned." 

Provenance[Sonnabend Gallery, Inc., New York]; purchased by MFAH, 1978.
Exhibition HistoryExhibited: "Photo-collage," Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, 25 August - 3 October 1982 (LN:82.34)

Exhibited "Evocative Presence: Twentieth Century Photographs in the Museum Collection", The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston February 27 - May 1, 1988

Exhibited "The Glass Canvas", December 12, 1996 through February 23, 1997, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Exhibited: "Contemporary Art and Photography: Spotlight on the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston," MFAH, Upper Brown Pavilion, September 30, 2001 - February 3, 2002.

"Ruptures and Continuities: Photography Made after 1960 from the MFAH Collection," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Brown Foundation Galleries, February 21 - May 9, 2010.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
no apparent inscriptions

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

Echoes Part 2
Julie Brook Alexander
Echoes Part 2
2005
Inkjet print with collaged elements
2006.1080
Blue Bucket
Rusty Scruby
Blue Bucket
2010
Inkjet prints collaged
2010.1559
Overall recto.
Jane Hammond
Russian Bucket with Black Pussy Willow, Venus Fly Trap and Morning Glory
2023
Botanical collage using linoleum cut, relief, inkjet print, colored pencil, Sumi ink, watercolor and gouache, hand cut and assembled on collaged Japanese papers over cotton rag
2023.686
Untitled, No. 4
Joseph Glasco
Untitled, No. 4
1989
Acrylic and collaged canvas on canvas
96.799
Blue Sky
Richard Gordon Stout
Blue Sky
1960
Watercolor on collaged paper, mounted on wood
94.408
Image Not Available for Untitled
John Baldessari
Untitled
no date
Photo offset on film, collaged on white wove paper
96.89.44
Image Not Available for Partial working proof of Heaven
John Baldessari
Partial working proof of Heaven
no date
Collaged photoetching and roulette in colors
96.89.34
Working proof of Heaven
John Baldessari
Working proof of Heaven
no date
Photoetching and aquatint in colors, with hand-applied watercolor and collaged element in pastel over watercolor
96.89.29
Untitled
Joseph Glasco
Untitled
c. 1983
Acrylic and collaged canvas on canvas
2006.199
Image Not Available for III, working proof
David Rabinowitch
III, working proof
June 1, 1993
Collaged etching and aquatint with hand coloring
96.288.A-.C
Screen
Joseph Glasco
Screen
1983
Acrylic and collaged canvas on canvas
85.4
[Working proof, first of two states]
Eric Fischl
[Working proof, first of two states]
no date
Collaged sugar lift aquatint, scraping and soft ground etching in colors
96.154