Essay
William Weege: Unfinished Work BY AN G ELA WO O DWARD
S
tacks of artwork, both finished and unfinished, overflow William Weege’s printmaking studio in
rural Arena. Piles of coarse paper clutter the tables on either side of an imposing printing press, while prints from the many decades of Weege’s career rest in drawers or hang on racks. Some are framed and hung, others lean against the walls. The artist worked in an accretive process, and many pieces have been printed, painted on, and further built up with wooden or cardboard shapes attached to their surfaces. The prints seem to wait for more to be done to them, or maybe for something to be taken away. Perhaps even if the artist were still here to finish them, these prints wouldn’t be perfected but simply halted at a stage where the eye hangs on them best. There’s a sense of mutability about Weege’s art, as if the form we see might still be on its way to something else.
Wisconsin printmaker William Weege’s legacy lies with the artists he worked with and the land he restored, as well as in his own groundbreaking creations.
16
WISCONSIN PEOPLE & IDEAS
