Let the Sunshine In

Let the Sunshine In
William Weege

Artist Biography
Acquisition Number: 77.53
Medium: Color serigraph with flocking on paper
Size: 19" x 19"
Date: 1970
Credit: Purchased by the Canton Museum of Art

Weege was a pillar in the printmaking and papermaking fields of the United States. Though his style eventually became completely abstract, his early work, made during the Vietnam War, commented on social and political issues through graphic Pop art imagery. It was around this time that he was also making prints based off of songs. "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" is a medley of two songs written for the 1967 musical "Hair." The lyrics were based on the astrological belief that the world would soon be entering the Age of Aquarius, an age of love, light, and humanity, the perfect theme for "Hair" and its commentary on the Vietnam War. Critics wrote that, with "Hair," the Age of Aquarius had dawned — an age that would abolish war and racial discrimination, aggression, and crime. Weege hoped for this positive change as well and portrayed it through his work, using bold, fluorescent color as the vehicle to express it. His prints also have complex layers of photographic imagery – sometimes borrowed, sometimes shot – and involve unconventional techniques like flocking, glittering, and sewing. 'Let the Sunshine In" includes both flocking and glittering, the flocking present on the girl's facial features and hair. Artist Larry Bell witnessed Weege achieve the effects of flocking in screenprinting, stating: “I still have the image [in my mind] of Bill Weege throwing the flocking on the floored prints then sweeping it off with a house broom. I really liked him; he was incredibly funny.”