Edward Weston. The Matter of Forms

Edward Weston’s work, closely tied to the landscape and cultural history of North America, stands out for its extreme simplicity and originality. From these two defining traits, Weston’s photography offers a unique perspective on the development of the medium in its pursuit of artistic status and its significance within the modernity of the visual arts.

Weston was a pioneer in the use of a modern photographic language: created with a large-format camera, his images are striking for their detail and clarity. The combination of his technical mastery, his interest in form, and his fascination with nature gave rise to numerous iconic images of still lifes, landscapes, nudes, portraits… images that are essential to understanding the new aesthetic and American way of life that emerged in the interwar period.

Curated by Sergio Mah, The Matter of Forms offers a broad anthology (nearly two hundred photographs), whose seven sections span every stage of Weston’s career in a carefully constructed journey that seeks, above all, to highlight the aesthetic and conceptual counterpoint that his work represented in contrast to European photographic modernism as it emerged alongside the avant-garde movements.

Exhibition organized with the support of the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, Tucson.

Curator: Sergio Mah