WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Brett Weston Archive has donated 151 photographs by the late Brett Weston (1911–93) to The Phillips Collection, making the museum a study center for Weston’s work with the largest gift to the museum’s photography collection. “Brett Weston was a leading artist of his generation. The museum has collected an impressive range of photographs in the last 15 years, and we have a great interest in further developing our holdings in this important medium,” says Renee Maurer, curatorial coordinator of The Phillips Collection. “We have acquired core modern masterworks by American and European photographers.”

The photographs showcase Weston’s work from the late 1920s until the ’80s. Many are portraits, landscapes and pictures of abstracted textures and forms. The artist is recognized by his ability to frame his subjects up close, lending an almost-abstract quality. Included in the collection are landscapes of New York City and the West, as well as a portfolio of portraits of his father, respected photographer Edward Weston. “The subjects he chose concentrated mostly on close-ups and abstracted details, and his prints reflect a preference for high contrast that reduced his subjects to pure form,” Maurer says. “His experiments forever changed photography.”

The museum will take selections from the gift to be shown in a major Weston retrospective exhibition, “Brett Weston: Out of the Shadow.” “Part of the Archive’s donation strategy is to place Weston’s work in the finest museums,” says Scott Hale, director of the Brett Weston Archive. “We have always respected The Phillips Collection. They are the oldest modern art museum in America, and this gift helps establish the museum’s photography collection and create a study center in the nation’s capital for Weston’s work.”

Toward the end of his life, Weston destroyed all but a few of his negatives in order to prevent anyone else from printing his work, a career move for which Hale is thankful. “While we regret not being able to study his negatives, we don’t have to deal with the posthumous concerns other photographers have experienced,” Hale says. “It’s a guarantee that every Weston photograph was printed by the artist himself.”