Edward Weston in Portland, Maine

[PaulH]

The Portland Museum of Art is putting on a exhibit called Edward Weston: Life Work. 99 prints. It runs from June 28 thru October 19.

http://www.portlandmuseum.org/c_exhib2.html#anchor5555522

If you can get there berfore September 7, you can also see and exhibit of painitngs by Eliot Porter's brother Fairfield. Prints by Eliot will be there in Jan, 2004.

Looks like a few trips to Maine for me this year.

 

[JHannon]

Thanks for the information Paul. I will be going there soon... I have never seen an original Weston print.

Regards,
John

 

[Daniel Grenier]

I'm now planning a trip to Portland for this show... haven't seen EW in quite some time now.... I'm also planning a Bangor detour (125 miles or so) to see George Tice's current show "Urban Landscapes" at the University of Maine Museum of Art..... I love his work. Here's the link for this one:

http://www.umaine.edu/News/071403/UMaine Museum of Art to Open New Exhibits.htm

If anyone has seen either, it'd be nice to read your thoughts.

Daniel

 

[PaulH]

I went to Portland to see the Weston exhibit last weekend. It was a large show, 99 prints. The prints were grouped by subject and very well displayed. There were many early prints, including some Platinum prints. Many of his early portraits and nudes were what looked to be small contact prints (smaller than 4x5). I've never cared for the reproductions of his early nudes in books, but these little prints were exquisite. There was plenty of space in the rooms were the exhibit was hung. I plan to go back in the fall. There are many other interesting pieces in the Portland Art Museum. I would suggest that you plan to see it all. It is not very large, and you can take the whole thing in with out getting art overload. When you come in to the museum, to the left of the counter where you pay, there a several photos by artists 'influenced' by EW. Don't miss that.

There is a Motel6 at exit 8 of the Maine Turnpike. Cheap and clean and a bit on the spare side. It is about 10 or 15 minutes to the museum and 20 minutes to the Old Port. The rooms downtown are pretty pricey. Portland is quite the town: a lot of art/craft and a lot of good ale. Shipyard Brewing is on the east end of town, I think they pipe their product directly to the pubs. If you like that sort of thing, don't miss Gritty McDuff's Brewpub. Have a pint or 3 of Gritty's Best Bitter: wonderful stuff.

I have not seen that George Tice exhibit, but I did see one in Woodstock, NY which seemed to be more of a retrospective of his work. There were prints from his Urban Landscape series as well as his Amish work, and many others. It was good to see them. I was not overwhelmed by the quality of the prints like I am by EW or Michael and Paula. They seemed to lack a certain life for me. If you go, I would be interested to hear your take on them.

The only thing I know about Bangor is that it is dangerously close to Acadia National Park, and if I got to Bangor, I would become hoplessly sidetracked at Acadia.

BTW, there are plenty of good places to visit the ocean around Portland, and there are some really nice Casco Bay cruises out of Portland. One of my favorite spots is Two Lights State Park in Cape Elizabeth, just south of Portland. Also Portland Head Light in South Portland.

Hope this helps, see it all and enjoy!

 

[Daniel Grenier]

Thanks for the great feedback Paul...

I am that much more looking forward to my visit to Portland (and Bangor) now.... sounds like a great Weston show. Last time I saw a good grouping of work from EW's own hand (as opposed to Cole's prints), was in Boston several years ago. (Cole's prints of his father's are fine, of course, and were a "mere" $400 back in the 80's at a Camden Maine show! Should've bought one!!!).

Looking forward as well to a good pint at Gritty McDuff's along with a massive feed of lobster somewhere.... A tour of Portland is also in order as is a drive up the coast thru Rockport on my way to Bangor. Just too quaint and loveable to pass up.

Never been to Bangor - home to a greatly underrated photographer, the now deceased Todd Webb - but can't wait to see Tice's show. I actually bought the show's accompanying book just this weekend in Montreal at the Canadian Centre for Architecture - surely, the world's foremost centre for architecture and who's founder, Phylis Lambert (heir to the Seagram's empire) has the most fantastic architectural photography collection anywhere - is a terrific museum worth a special visit to Montreal....

I digress... the book, wrongly titled, IMHO, "Urban Landscape" is about and only about New Jersey. Which is why it totally escapes me why "New Jersey" has somehow been omitted for this great book's title. I find Tice's vision of his environment (he's a 10th generation New Jersyan) quite simply brilliant. I refer here to his man-made environment, buildings, interiors, as opposed to his natural environment, ponds, trees, which, frankly, I could never warm up to. His street scenes I find magnificient. They are images I, for whatever reasons, can completely relate to although I've never set foot in any of those cities. They are photographs I wish I'd taken I suppose...

As for print quality, Tice vs Weston (or vs Michael/Paula) does not really matter now does it? All are excellent - but different. Tice's prints, to me, just match his subject matter perfectly and I don't know that the work would/could fare better on prints with deeper blacks and/or whiter whites. Last time I saw Tice's prints "in the flesh" was in the great "Banks" show of 10+ years ago which, incidentally, was comissioned by the CCA. The work was great. I can't wait to see Tice's "new" prints for this show (which are all from 8x10 film but enlarged as opposed to contact-printed like EW ---- makes one wonder how much cropping there was though!).

The book, I would highly recommend for the great printing job and for the highly appropriate and "bang on" introduction. An enlightening presentation of Tice's work, by himself, explains his approach.

Anyhow, that's it for me.... and thanks again for he feedback Paul.

Regards

Daniel