"Nude, East Sussex," Bill
Brandt, 1957. Gelatin silver print courtesy of the Bill Brandt
Archive.
MILWAUKEE, WIS. - "Bill Brandt: A Retrospective" and "Edward
Weston: Life Work" are at the Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM) through
February 9. The exhibitions, made up largely of vintage prints,
contain a full range of works by Brandt and Weston. "Brandt and
Weston: Two Geniuses of Photography" traces the creative growth
and stylistic changes of each artist, presenting their
distinctive and innovative visions side by side.
Said Brian Ferriso, senior director of curatorial affairs at MAM,
"Both Brandt and Weston are celebrated for their treatment of
photography as an art form. These two icons had a huge impact on
the art world and how people view photography.
"Bill Brandt: A Retrospective" explores the wide ranging work of
this British master photographer. Brandt's work is familiar to
viewers because he is the inventor of his style -- the trademark
grainy gray British light evident in his photographs. From
Brandt's early work that documents fixed social contrasts of
pre-World War II life in Britain to his later experimentation
with a surreal style, this exhibition spans 50 years of Brandt's
far reaching career in an extensive assemblage of 155 vintage
gelatin silver prints from the Bill Brandt Archive in London.
Brandt's vision, unconfined by easy categories, extends from
photojournalism to moody, atmospheric landscapes to stark,
revealing portraiture to high-contrast nudes, distorted with very
wide-angle lenses.
"Edward Weston: Life Work" is a survey of nearly 100 works by
this American artist, containing a grouping of vintage prints
from all phases of Weston's five-decade career. Weston
(1886-1958) is often cited as the quintessential American
modernist photographer. Weston's work exhibits pure form, a
minimalist style and an elegant presentation of form. His work is
marked by subtle and rich tonalities that enhance the elegant
formal beauty of his subjects.
In this exhibition, previously unpublished masterpieces are
interspersed with well-known signature images. Grouped into seven
major bodies of work, the exhibition begins with his rarely
exhibited early period and ends with his late landscapes of the
California coast. Highlights include a work thought to be
Weston's first nude, a 1909 outdoor Pictorialist study of his
wife Flora. A smoky view of the Chicago River harbor from 1916
pays homage to Coburn and Stieglitz and anticipates the urban
modernism famously captured by "Armco Steel, Ohio" 1922, which
marked Weston's final break from the confines of Pictorialism and
studio work, and the emergence of a sharply focused style.
The museum is at 700 North Art Museum Drive in downtown
Milwaukee, along the shore of Lake Michigan. For information,
414-224-3200 or www.mam.org.
