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Abstract Photographer's Work Featured In New Greenwich Exhibition

GREENWICH, Conn. -- The Bruce Museum in Greenwich will present an exhibition of images by abstract photographer Brett Weston, from Nov. 5  through Feb. 12, 2017.

The Bruce Museum exhibition of Brett Weston photographs opens Saturday, Nov. 5.

The Bruce Museum exhibition of Brett Weston photographs opens Saturday, Nov. 5.

Photo Credit: Contributed photo
The exhibition will feature images of architectural designs from major cities and natural elements from the desert to lush tropical landscapes.

The exhibition will feature images of architectural designs from major cities and natural elements from the desert to lush tropical landscapes.

Photo Credit: Contributed photo

The exhibition, titled "Towards Abstraction, 1940-1985: Brett Weston Photographs from the Bruce Museum Collection" will feature 23 vintage 11 by 14 inch and 8 by 10 inch, black-and-white photographs by Weston that were part of a 2015 gift to the museum from the Christian Keesee Collection.

Keesee, who is a collector and philanthropist, acquired the vintage prints from the Brett Weston Estate in 1996, then created an archive to organize and catalog the works as well as increase public awareness of the artist.

The exhibition will feature images of architectural designs from major cities and natural elements from the desert to lush tropical landscapes.

Throughout his nearly 70-year career, Weston (1911-1993) was obsessed with abstracted micro-images of reality as well as of cities and landscapes captured by a long telephoto lens that diminished the depth of field, thus flattening the image, according to a release from the Bruce Museum.

“Whatever the subject, the images are crisp, flattened, black-and-white, and brilliantly composed, but not staged,” said Susan Ball, Bruce Museum deputy director and curator of the exhibition.

Weston used medium and large-format cameras and usually contact printed directly from the negative, selecting his subjects carefully rather than relying on manipulation in the dark room, the release said.

He rarely cropped images and only occasionally used an enlarger, but not until the 1960s when the technology became sophisticated enough to meet his exacting standards.

His subjects became increasingly less recognizable as time progressed.

“He often combined groups of photographs in portfolios, and although only a few portfolios were actually labeled ‘Abstractions,’”  they all share Brett Weston’s signature abstract and flattened style," Ball explained.

Weston gained international recognition at the age of 17, when he was included, with his father, Edward Weston, in an avant-garde exhibition at Film und Foto in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1929.

Three years later, he had his first one-person museum retrospective in San Francisco and frequently exhibited in the 1930s.

For additional information about the exhibition, call (203)-869-0376 or visit brucemuseum.org.

The Bruce Museum is at 1 Museum Drive, Greenwich.

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