At The Last, Nature Abstracted

Weston, who had taken on the cause of government support for the arts and artists, was better known internationally in the late 1950s for his political advocacy than for his painting. Weston’s realism was played out, and he looked for a fresh idiom. With a long and respected career behind him and in his mid-60s he was nevertheless inspired to experiment while staying on the Isle of Rhodes, Greece. Ultimately, he arrived at abstraction not through expressionism, which was wildly popular at the time, but through the precision technique he had been using for twenty years.

He bore down on nature’s microcosm, transforming its patterns into rhythmic abstractions. A weathered fungus, an insect-ridden stick, or stones from Canada’s Gaspé Peninsula became his last work.