Bruce Museum
Greenwich, CT
(203) 869-0376
Brett Weston in New York
October 1, 1999 through November 18, 1999
The Bruce Museum of Arts and Science presents Brett Weston in
New York from October 1, 1999 through November 18, 1999. Featuring over
seventy black-and-white prints, the exhibition features the work of Brett
Weston (1911-1993), the respected American modernist photographer. The prints
provide visitors with a window into this brilliant artist's wartime imagery
of New York City from late 1943 to 1945. (left: Rooftop, New York
City, 1944, gelatin silver print, 8 x 10 inches, Courtesy of The Brett
Weston Archive from The Christian Keesee Collection)
It was predictable that Brett Weston would become an accomplished
photographer. As a young man Brett was taught by his father, the renowned
photographer Edward Weston, and Tina Modotti , while in Mexico. At his father's
side, he began making photographs that astonished audiences when they were
first exhibited in the 1920s. By the time he was a teenager, he was producing
work that rivaled that of his father, and it was assumed that his photographic
career would be equally stellar. The elder Weston once remarked that his
son Brett was "doing better work at fourteen than I did at thirty."
Drafted in 1941, Brett Weston was assigned to a photographic
unit of the Army's Signal Corps 
stationed in Astoria, Queens. By this time he had
been a photographer for nearly two decades and had already exhibited his
work at the prestigious avant-garde Film und Foto show in Stuttgart,
Germany. He was also known for his architectural photography, having created
a number of notable panoramas of San Francisco. (right: Nancy
Newhall's Rooftop, New York City, 1945, gelatin silver print, 13 1/2
x 10 1/2 inches, Courtesy of The Brett Weston Archive from The Christian
Keesee Collection)
In the service, Weston was under the command of Arthur
Rothstein, a well-known Farm Security Administration and Look magazine
photographer, who charged him with photographing New York City. Upon completing
his assignments, Weston was free to explore the city's endless visual resources
on his own, and the photographs made during this period remain fresh and
revealing documents.
It was during this time that Weston perfected his craft
in evocative studies of the rooftops, towers, doorways, fences, streets,
and bridges of a bustling metropolis. With his notoriously precisionist
style, large-format cameras - the cumbersome 8" x 10" and 11"
x 14" view cameras were his tools of choice - and exquisite contact
printing method, Weston captured details of city life that went unnoticed
in other documentarists' pictures.
In photographs such as Brooklyn Bridge, for example,
the photographer's democratic technique captures the specific characteristics
of the bridge, along with a whole universe of supporting details that make
for an incredibly rich evocation of the urban fabric. Here and there in
the photographs are familiar glimpses of classic New York - stationary delivery
trucks, chaotic signage, the Chrysler building in the distance beyond jumbled
rooftops. But, more importantly, each image displays a formalist's love
of structure, pattern, and form in the city's often random juxtaposition
of architectural styles, textures, and materials.
Brett Weston in New York focuses
on an important transitional period for the photographer, a time when he
refined and expanded his approach to photography, preparing him for the
diverse subjects he would later document in exotic locales around the world.
Instead of stepping forward to embrace his celebrity as
the son of Edward Weston, Brett Weston chose a quieter life, dedicating
himself to a relentlessly individual pursuit of his art. Enormously prolific,
he was, however, highly selective about what he exhibited during his lifetime.
Today, numerous prints in the care of the Brett Weston Archive from the
Christian Keesee Collection represent a lifetime in photography that are
only now beginning to be assessed.
Brett Weston in New York is
originated and circulated by Curatorial Assistance, Inc., Los Angeles, and
is curated by Jon Burris. All works are courtesy of The Brett Weston Archive
from The Christian Keesee Collection. The exhibition is on view in the Museum's
Bantle Lecture Gallery. On certain dates viewing hours may be limited due
to public programs taking place in the Gallery. Please call ahead for hours.
The exhibition is sponsored by The Chase Manhattan Corporation.
Read more about the Bruce
Museum in Resource Library Magazine.
For further biographical information on selected artists
cited in this article please see America's
Distinguished Artists, a national registry of historic artists.
rev. 10/26/10
Search Resource
Library for thousands of articles and essays on American art.
Copyright 2010 Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc., an Arizona nonprofit corporation. All rights
reserved.
The Bruce Museum of Arts and Science presents Brett Weston in
New York from October 1, 1999 through November 18, 1999. Featuring over
seventy black-and-white prints, the exhibition features the work of Brett
Weston (1911-1993), the respected American modernist photographer. The prints
provide visitors with a window into this brilliant artist's wartime imagery
of New York City from late 1943 to 1945. (left: Rooftop, New York
City, 1944, gelatin silver print, 8 x 10 inches, Courtesy of The Brett
Weston Archive from The Christian Keesee Collection)