Weston Exhibit

Edward Weston: A Legacy

Photographic masterworks on view in exhibition

June 28 through Oct. 5, 2003

Oceano, 1938, Photograph by Edward Weston

"With the exception of portraits and nudes, my Guggenheim period is a summation of my life-work; it includes every possible approach and seeing that I have touched before in a mature and conclusive form." Edward Weston, September 1939

Juniper, Sierra Nevada, 1937,
Photograph by Edward Weston

The name of the American photographer Edward Weston (1886-1958) evokes images of anthropomorphic still lifes, dramatic coastal landscapes, and stark dunes that embody the brilliant compositions and exquisite tonalities of the movement that came to be known as Straight Photography. From June 28 through October 5, The Huntington will feature 150 highlights from its extraordinary collection of Weston photographs in an exhibit entitled "Edward Weston: A Legacy". This exhibition celebrates a critical chapter in Edward Weston's remarkable career. In the early 1940s, Weston selected and printed 500 of his masterworks for the Huntington Library. This gift was underwritten by the Guggenheim Foundation, which had sponsored Weston's photographic odyssey through California and the West in 1937 and 1938. As the first photographer ever to receive a Guggenheim fellowship, Weston believed these two years to be the most productive and satisfying of his life. He wanted the work seen and he wanted it preserved, and he chose The Huntington to fulfill these goals.

"What it all comes to is this," Weston wrote the Guggenheim Foundation in 1939, "I want very much to have a collection in the Huntington Library and will do anything I can to make it possible."

Rubber Dummies, MGM, 1939,
Photograph by Edward Weston

This superb collection today remains an important legacy created by a master photographer at the height of his career. It is also one of the gems of The Huntington's extensive collections on the history of the American West. Although several small exhibitions of works from the Guggenheim collection have been mounted at The Huntington since the gift arrived in the 1940s, no large exhibit has ever been organized. As such, The Huntington's Weston collection has remained a hidden jewel, little known even to historians of photography.

The Guggenheim prints are at the heart of The Huntington's Weston collection. Liberated financially for the first time in his life, Weston sought, as he stated in his Guggenheim application, "to continue an epic series of photographs of the West, begun about 1929; [including] a range from satires on advertising to ranch life, from beach kelp to mountains." The purchase of a car allowed him to travel through California, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, and north to Oregon and Washington. Classic images of Lake Tenaya, the Mojave Desert, Yosemite, and Death Valley, among others, are found throughout the collection.

Shell, Glendale, 1927, Photograph by Edward Weston

Knowing that these pictures would serve as a self-selected legacy, Weston included far more than the photographs produced on his two Guggenheim grants. He also made nearly 70 prints from earlier negatives, including many of his best-known images. Contained in this part of the collection are examples of his famous still lifes of vegetables and shells; a magnificent set of landscapes and intimate studies from Point Lobos near Carmel, California; and an important group of dune studies made at Oceano on the California coast. Among the works that post-date the Guggenheim period are 90 images from Weston's 1941 cross-country travels made in connection with a special edition of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.

The works selected for "Edward Weston: A Legacy" will showcase a wide range of photographs from across the whole of the Guggenheim collection, including classic images that have come to define Weston's oeuvre and less familiar works that illustrate the photographer's mature perspective on his career.

White Sands, New Mexico, 1941,
Photograph by Edward Weston

Although Weston spent many years prior to his Guggenheim period photographing the nude figure, the artist chose not to include any of these works in his Huntington gift. Comparisons can readily be made between the formal qualities he sought in his female models and in nature. To that end, the Huntington will exhibit a book maquette (or "mock-up") owned by the J. Paul Getty Museum. This unpublished maquette makes clear the connections between Weston's landscape and nude work and functions beautifully in conversation with the Huntington prints. Produced by photographic historian Nancy Newhall in collaboration with Weston at the end of his career, the maquette was never published. This will be its first public viewing.

Charis, Lake Ediza, 1937, Photograph by Edward Weston

"Edward Weston: A Legacy" is one of several shows highlighting the institution's rich holdings in the history of American and British art, presented as part of the centennial celebration of Henry Huntington's 1903 purchase of his San Marino estate. A catalog published by Merrell Publishers in London will accompany the exhibition and will include close to 200 duotone illustrations and a set of essays by leading Weston scholars.

At his death in 1958, Edward Weston was recognized the world over as a master of his art. "It is rare that any major artist has said so much and so clearly to so many people," remarked his friend Ansel Adams. Weston's gift to The Huntington is a testament to this genius.

Jennifer A. Watts, Curator of Photographs

The exhibition is made possible through the generous support of Anne and Jim Rothenberg, The Capital Group Companies, Inc., The Virginia Steele Scott Foundation, and the Pasadena Art Alliance. Additional sponsorship is provided by Angeleno magazine.

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