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Robust Lover of Life...
My work is never intellectual.... I never make a negative unless
emotionally moved by the subject.
Edward Weston's life is of
near mythic proportions: a series of love affairs, sojourns to
Mexico with exotic Tina Modotti, a Spartan lifestyle — truly the
elements of which legends are made. Yet behind the often exaggerated
stories and tales of the frequently misjudged artist stands a man
driven by passion, deep emotion, and a unique eye. Although
introspective, he was not the dark, brooding, bohemian intellectual
and lover as he was often portrayed, but a man possessed by a
relentless drive to seek beauty, perfection, and emotionally charged
images. The real Edward Weston is a humble family man and a
photographer of unequaled talent. He was dedicated to his four
talented sons, devoted to his sister, Mary and eternally passionate
toward his collection of friends, students, and lovers. This picture
is considerably less romantic but clearly more accurate and
appealing. After his death, his second wife Charis Wilson, expressed
shock and dismay at the cliché-ridden myth that had been created to
replace the flesh-and-blood man that she knew as Edward Weston. This
exhibition delves into Edward Weston as brother, son, and father,
the man "a robust lover of life...a man who found the world
endlessly fascinating."
Weston's mastery of
photography is unparalleled. In a review of the traveling exhibition
Edward Weston: Photography and Modernism at the Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston, Washington Post art critic Henry Allen
wrote, "Through no fault of his own, Weston's discoveries have
become clichés. After all the imitation and reproductions, you can't
quite see his work for what it is, or was. But what wonderful
pictures they are, when you stop thinking about them. The eros of
the pepper, the classical purity of the chambered nautilus, the
gleam of an ocean wrinkled like molten metal: No one had done what
Weston did, and a lot of people tried"
We think we know Edward
Weston. His Daybooks provide a lengthy insight into his daily
wanderings through a dozen of the most productive years of his
career. Numerous books — some written by Weston himself — address
his life and work. Weston's voluminous correspondence complements
his Daybooks to round out an amazing archive of primary
source material. And, because Weston began writing early in his
career, publishing an article in 1911 in Photo Era that would
presage his prolific production as a writer on his own work, the
world was given a window on the mind of this man behind the myth.
But do we really know him?
At first glance, the ocean
of correspondence, journal entries, and other writing by Weston and
about him is vast. One can easily wonder, "How could an artist be so
verbose, so articulate, and so introspective about his work, his
career, and his life, yet be so misunderstood?" In reality, one
needs to look more carefully at this body of writing to extract an
underlying meaning — Weston's translation of life's everyday trails
and triumphs — to see what sparked him. One also needs to look more
carefully at this body of writing to extract an underlying meaning —
Weston's translation of life's everyday trials and triumphs — to see
what sparked him. One also needs to recognize that, like most
people, Edward Weston changed and matured throughout his life.
Weston a portrait photographer of the middle teens is vastly
different from the Weston that journeyed to Mexico only a few years
later. And this Edward Weston is altogether different from the
sated, mature artist who was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in
1936.
The epicenter of his
published work, The Daybooks of Edward Weston, relates to little
more than a decade of his nearly half-century career. This was a
time, one should note, that was replete with many personal
challenges in his life: confrontations with his first wife, Flora;
his prolonged sojourn to Mexico and separation from his beloved
sons; and then his wanderings in California. This expansive and
introspective journal — it is an impressive two-volume set — ends
shortly after he meets Charis Wilson and settles down more
permanently in the early 1930s in Carmel, California.
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