From the Getty Museum’s website:
Los Angeles launched the career of Edward Weston (1886–1958), the subject of the current exhibition Edward Weston: Enduring Vision and a creative visionary who has been described as “the quintessential American artist/photographer of his time” Weston lived in the greater Los Angeles area from 1906 to 1923, establishing his own photographic business, marrying and having four children, and coming to grips with modern art for the first time.
In 1923 Weston left for Mexico; after returning to California he eventually settled in Carmel, the bucolic seaside town that was the polar opposite of the messy, tumultuous City of Angels. And it is with Carmel, not Los Angeles, that Weston remains firmly associated. Weston assisted in this rewriting of history by destroying many photographs and papers from his years here.
What prompted Weston to erase Los Angeles from his past? Did the city have any influence on his work, or was his time here merely a prelude to the monumental artistic achievements that came later? Learn the answers to these questions from historian of photography Beth Gates Warren, who has spent the last decade piecing together the lost history of Edward Weston in L.A.
About Beth Gates Warren:
Beth Gates Warren is a historian of photography and a leading expert in the field of collecting photographs. An art consultant and the former director of the photographs department at Sotheby’s, Inc., Warren has lectured and taught at such institutions as The New School, the International Center of Photography, New York University, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Phillips Museum of Art. She is the author of Margrethe Mather and Edward Weston: A Passionate Collaboration, which examines the personal and professional relationship between these two important American photographers.
Date: Thursday, September 13, 2007
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Getty Center, Harold M. Williams Auditorium
Admission: Free; reservations required. Call (310) 440-7300
Marketing Photos with Mary Virginia Swanson 