Nude

1925, printed 1930s

Not on view

Returned to lender

This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.

Edward Weston moved from Los Angeles to Mexico City in 1923 with Tina Modotti, an Italian actress and nascent photographer. They were each influenced by, and in turn helped shape, the larger community of artists among whom they lived and worked, which included Diego Rivera, Jean Charlot, and many other members of the Mexican Renaissance. In fall 1925 Weston made a remarkable series of nudes of the art critic, journalist, and historian Anita Brenner. Depicting her body as a pear-like shape floating in a dark void, the photographs evoke the hermetic simplicity of a sculpture by Constantin Brancusi. Brenner’s form becomes elemental, female and male, embryonic, tightly furled but ready to blossom.

Artwork Details

Overview

Exhibition History

Title: Nude
Artist: Edward Weston (American, Highland Park, Illinois 1886–1958 Carmel, California)
Date: 1925, printed 1930s
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Dimensions: Image: 8 1/2 × 7 1/2 in. (21.6 × 19 cm)
Framed: 23 × 19 in. (58.4 × 48.3 cm)
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Promised Gift of Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee, in celebration of the Museum’s 150th Anniversary
Curatorial Department: Photographs