Kelli Connell's exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art explores the complex relationship between artist and muse through the lens of Edward Weston and Charis Wilson's collaborative work in the 1930s and 40s. Connell's contemporary perspective, intertwined with her own relationship with sculptor Betsy Odom, reimagines Weston's iconic photographs and offers a deeper understanding of the creative process.
One of the oldest tropes in art is that of the “artist” and “muse.” One is the creative soul and ideas person; the other, a fixed or inert “inspirational” subject to be posed and objectified. Those broad, outdated terms rarely account for a wider symbiotic relationship that can (or should) exist between them.
American photographer Kelli Connell reevaluates the relationship between writer Charis Wilson and photographer Edward Weston – particularly during their prolific figure studies and landscapes period from 1934 to 1945. Connell does this in an in-depth review of Wilson’s prose and Weston’s photographs of the Western landscape and the female nude found in the photographic travelogue “California and the West” (1940). She then weaves in her own relationship with partner at the time, sculptor Betsy Odom.Connell’s exhibition, which runs at the Cleveland Museum of Art beginning Sunday, January 26 and running through late May, breathes new life into well-known photographs and brings a contemporary queer, feminist perspective to the proceedings in the process. As Connell chased Weston’s ghost and obsessed over Wilson, she realized a modern artist-subject relationship should be collaborative, emphasizing mutual input and agency for the model. She worked tirelessly to ensure Odom’s creative input and collaboration was accounted for in the work. According to Barbara Tannenbaum, CMA curator of photography, the exhibition reimagines the work of Weston and Wilson through the lens of Connell and Odom, offering a deeper exploration of those themes. “To take on a master photographer like Weston, especially considering his relationship with Wilson and the land, and to revisit his work from a completely different perspective 80 years later is truly remarkable,” she said. Tannenbaum told Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer that Connell had worked on the project for a decade. Connell thought that when Weston died, “his fame really skyrocketed” but she sensed that Wilson’s role in that ecosystem “had been muted over the years.” Connell wanted to correct the record and retrace the duo’s steps to the extent they were able – while “upending conventional power dynamics” seen between artist and subject. It’s a bold statement; the connection between the works captivating.When Weston and Wilson were working on “California and the West,” they planned the itinerary together. The project would be a unique first on several levels. She described the model-photographer relationship as “an intimate act, akin to lovemaking in some ways, especially when the model is also a partner.” Tannenbaum explained that Weston received the first Guggenheim grant in photography for this project with Wilson’s help as a writer. She rewrote his initial grant proposal, which ultimately secured the funding. Using Weston and Wilson’s publication as a guide, Connell and Odom recreated portrait and landscape photographs at sites where Wilson and Weston lived, made art, and spent time together. The exhibition is co-published by Aperture and the Center for Creative Photography. It brings together Connell’s text, portraits of Odom, new landscape views and original materials by Wilson and Weston. The exhibition features text excerpts from the monograph alongside the photographic works, offering a deeper understanding of the creative process. Connell, an editor at Skylark Editions and a professor at Columbia College Chicago, has long investigated gender, identity and sexuality in an artistic capacity. Her work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art and Museum of Fine Arts Houston, among others. An artist-curator and educator, Odom received an MFA from Yale University School of Art and a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and has been a recipient of numerous grants and awards. The CMA exhibition encourages viewers to think on the emotional enormity of relationships and how they mirror the physical enormity of the natural world; how complex lives are, and how they’re always at risk of being “flattened, generalized, or misremembered.” “Beyond that, there are two different love stories that you see intertwined,” Tannenbaum agreed. “There’s Edward and Charis, and there’s Kelli and Betsy
Kelli Connell Edward Weston Charis Wilson Photographer Muse Artist Exhibition Cleveland Museum Of Art Contemporary Art Queer Art Feminist Art
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