Bill (William) Weege

BORN: Milwaukee, WI on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 1935

DIED: Arena, WI on Nov. 2, 2020

William Frederick Weege was born in Milwaukee in 1935 and grew up in Port Washington.  Weege studied engineering, first at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and then at UW–Madison, where he later switched to city planning. While he mastered advanced photo printing through a job at a commercial printing firm, Weege became increasingly drawn towards drawing and painting. When he returned to UW–Madison to study printmaking and joined the MFA program, Weege was already in some ways more capable than those who would teach him.

Weege studied printmaking, collage and sculpture at the University of Wisconsin. In the late 60's massive demonstrations against the Vietnam War shook the UW–Madison campus. His posters hit the streets of San Francisco, and were so popular that people often stole them - as soon as he put them up. Soon they covered the walls of every young hipster's pad. His career pinnacled in 1970 and 1971 where his art was exhibited at the Worlds Fair in Japan and the 7th International Biennial Exhibition in 1970, the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) in 1970 and at the Whitney Museum in 1971.

William Weege worked predominantly with silkscreen because of its immediacy and directness. He created the "print production" area to deal with the emerging photo-based technologies for printmakers. He was particularly interested in adapting graphic arts techniques for fine arts applications. He has been a leader in the development of digital printmaking.

Weege is best known for his large abstract handmade paper projects. His work is most often produced for corporate commissions, as well as for embassies around the world. His work can be seen at the Prudential Building in Minneapolis, the Renaissance Center in Detroit, Honda Headquarters in Tennessee, and in embassies in Finland, Germany, and Chile. Weege is also the founder of Tandem Press.

William Weege was Professor Emeritus from the UW-Madison Art Department and founder and artistic director of Tandem Press. He has shown his art widely and has works in the collections of museums including the Brooklyn Museum, New York, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, the Detroit Museum of Art and the Sam Francisco Museum of Art, California. In 1991 and 1992 he participated in a collaborative project, the Arts America Project Grant exhibited in Finland and Korea. He is one of the earlier practitioners of the revival of making handmade paper which started in the 1960s. He is highly regarded for his broad understanding of all aspects of printmaking, but is constantly developing new ways for making art. His enthusiasm and exuberance are infectious and when asked to describe his philosophy for art, he says, "Do it." 

Photo Credit: Rick Graves © 2022 by the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters