Brett Weston
- Introduction
- Theodore Brett Weston (December 16, 1911, Los Angeles – January 22, 1993, Hawaii) was an American photographer. Van Deren Coke described Brett Weston as the "child genius of American photography." He was the second of the four sons of photographer Edward Weston and Flora Chandler. Weston began taking photographs in 1925, while living in Mexico with Tina Modotti and his father. He began showing his photographs with Edward Weston in 1927, was featured at the international exhibition at Film und Foto in Germany at age 17, and mounted his first one-man museum retrospective at age 21 at the De Young Museum in San Francisco in January, 1932. Weston's earliest images from the 1920s reflect his intuitive sophisticated sense of abstraction. He often flattened the plane, engaging in layered space, an artistic style more commonly seen among the Abstract Expressionists and more modern painters like David Hockney than other photographers. He began photographing the dunes at Oceano, California, in the early 1930s. This eventually became a favorite location of his father Edward and later shared with Brett's third wife Dody Weston Thompson. Brett preferred the high gloss papers and ensuing sharp clarity of the gelatin silver photographic materials of the f64 Group rather than the platinum matte photographic papers common in the 1920s and encouraged Edward Weston to explore the new silver papers in his own work. Brett Weston was credited by photography historian Beaumont Newhall as the first photographer to make negative space the subject of a photograph. "Brett and I are always seeing the same kinds of things to do - we have the same kind of vision. Brett didn't like this; naturally enough, he felt that even when he had done the thing first, the public would not know and he would be blamed for imitating me." Edward Weston - Daybooks - May 24, 1930. Brett Weston used to refer to Edward Weston as "my biggest fan" and there was no rivalry between the two photographic giants. Brett and his wife Dody loyally set aside their own photography to help Edward after he was unable to print his own images due to Parkinson's disease, which claimed Edward's life in 1958. Weston married and divorced four times. He had one daughter, Erica Weston. Brett Weston lived part-time on the Big Island of Hawaii and in Carmel, California for the final 14 years of his life. He maintained a home in Waikoloa that was built by his brother Neil Weston, and later moved to Hawaii Paradise Park. He died in Kona Hospital on January 22, 1993 after suffering a stroke. Brett Weston was ranked one of the top ten photographers collected by American museums by the final decade of his life. His photographs are included in the collections of countless museums, including the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and the Museum of Photographic Arts. In November 1996, Oklahoma City collector Christian Keesee acquired from the Brett Weston Estate the remaining body of Weston’s work.
- Wikidata
- Q910885
- Nationality
- American
- Gender
- Male
- Roles
- Artist, Photographer, Sculptor
- Names
- Brett Weston, Theodore Brett Weston
- Ulan
- 500030585
Exhibitions
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Artist’s Choice: Herzog & de Meuron, Perception Restrained
Jun 21–Sep 25, 2006
MoMA
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Life of the City
Feb 28–May 21, 2002
MoMA
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Making Choices
Mar 16–Sep 26, 2000
MoMA
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American Landscapes
Jul 9–Oct 4, 1981
MoMA
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Reinstallation of the Collection
Oct 23, 1980–Jan 3, 1982
MoMA
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Brett Weston has
22 exhibitionsonline.
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Brett Weston Corrugated Iron Roof 1925
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Brett Weston Hand and Ear 1928
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Brett Weston Locomotive 1928
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Brett Weston Cactus 1934
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Brett Weston Sand Dune 4 1934
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Brett Weston Sand Dune 5 1935
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Brett Weston Wood Erosion 1936
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Brett Weston Shacks and Skyline 1936
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Brett Weston Four Stalks 1936
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Brett Weston Sand Dune 6 1936
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Brett Weston Wet Emery on Glass 1937
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Brett Weston Sand Dune 1937
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Brett Weston Sand Dune 3 1937
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Brett Weston Broken Window 1937
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Brett Weston Car Tracks and Telegraph Poles, San Francisco 1937
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Brett Weston Apartment House, San Francisco 1937
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Brett Weston Sand Dune 2 1938
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Brett Weston Factory 1938
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Brett Weston San Francisco Bay 1938
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Brett Weston New Highway North of Santa Fe 1938
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Brett Weston San Francisco 1937-39
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Brett Weston Waterfront Opposite Oakland 1939
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Brett Weston View of San Francisco Towards Alcatraz 1939
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Brett Weston View of San Francisco Towards Telegraph Hill 1939
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Brett Weston San Francisco Bridge 1939
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Brett Weston View Towards the Hills, San Francisco 1939
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Brett Weston Car Glass 1939
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Brett Weston Ocean 1939
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Brett Weston San Francisco from Potrero Hill 1939
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Brett Weston Grape Vineyard 1940
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Brett Weston San Francisco Beach 1940
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Brett Weston Hen and Chickens, Stonecrop, California 1942
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Brett Weston New York 1945
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Brett Weston Botanical Garden, Bronx, New York 1945
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Brett Weston New York 1945
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Brett Weston Midtown 1945
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Brett Weston Forty-Seventh St 1945
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Brett Weston Church Door, Bowery 1945
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Brett Weston Brooklyn Beachcomber 1945
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Brett Weston Church, Brooklyn Outskirts 1945
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Brett Weston Washington Square 1945
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Brett Weston Sutton Place 1945
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Brett Weston End of Forty-Second Street 1945
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Brett Weston Untitled 1946
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Brett Weston White Sands 1946
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Brett Weston White Sands 1946
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Brett Weston White Sands 1946
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Brett Weston White Sands 1946
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