In his early attempts to merge the realism of photography with the expressive effect of abstract art, Weston honed in on close-up details of his subjects. That the faces of his models were often cropped or averted served practical as well as aesthetic purposes, enabling the photographs to be read as figure studies rather than as individual portraits while also protecting the privacy of the friends and lovers who served as models.
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Artwork Details
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Title:[Nude]
Artist:Edward Weston (American, Highland Park, Illinois 1886–1958 Carmel, California)
Date:1925
Medium:Gelatin silver print
Dimensions:Image: 14.8 x 23.4 cm (5 13/16 x 9 3/16 in.) Mount: 35.2 x 43.9 cm (13 7/8 x 17 5/16 in.)
Classification:Photographs
Credit Line:Gilman Collection, Purchase, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Gift, 2005
Inscription: Signed and inscribed in pencil, on mount, recto BR: "Edward Weston // 1925"; Inscribed in pencil, on mount, verso BR: "74.802"
Merle Armitage; Rockwell Kent; [Lacarda Gallery, New York]; private collection, New York; [Mark Kelman]; Gilman Paper Company Collection, New York, September 21, 1978
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Edward Weston," January 29, 1975–March 30, 1975.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "Edward Weston," May 15, 1975–June 29, 1975.
Detroit Institute of Arts. "Edward Weston," July 22, 1975–September 14, 1975.
Des Moines Art Center. "Edward Weston," November 22, 1975–January 4, 1976.
Denver Art Museum. "Edward Weston," January 26, 1976–March 14, 1976.
Baltimore Museum of Art. "Edward Weston," April 13, 1976–June 13, 1976.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century, Selections from the Gilman Paper Company Collection," May 25–July 4, 1993.
Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland. "The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century, Selections from the Gilman Paper Company Collection," August 7–October 2, 1993.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century, Selections from the Gilman Paper Company Collection," June 19–September 11, 1994.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Naked before the Camera," March 27–September 9, 2012.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Modern and Contemporary Art. "Reimagining Modernism - Photographs Rotation 1," July 21–November 16, 2014.
London, Barbara, and Lee Witkin. The Photograph Collector's Guide. 1st ed. Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1979.
Hambourg, Maria Morris, Pierre Apraxine, Malcolm Daniel, Virginia Heckert, and Jeff L. Rosenheim. The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century, Selections from the Gilman Paper Company Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993. no. 179.
Edward Weston (American, Highland Park, Illinois 1886–1958 Carmel, California)
1931
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