Loyal Doggedness

Patrick LeMieux

Loyal Doggedness

Millitron injected stainmaster nylon mat with nitrile rubber backing

6' x 4'

2010

If cropped, the life scale and signifying foot make Diego Velázquez's dog from Las Meninas (1656) the perfect welcome mat for the art institution.

You could, imaginably, stand on an Andre while looking at Las Meninas and the whole experience would be resonant because the artists, so different in other respects, were in accord about the relation of their object to the body of the spectator who would see it, as well as, of course, to their own bodies while they were making it. —Jeff Wall, "Frames of Reference", (2003)
To the right the dog lying on the floor, the only element in the picture that is neither looking at anything nor moving, because it is not intended, with its deep reliefs and the light playing on its silky hair, to be anything but an object to be seen. —Michel Foucault, The Order of Things, (1966)