Label Text
China Cove, featured in this image, is in the southern portion of what is now Point Lobos State Natural Reserve in central California. Edward Weston lived near the area and took dozens of images of China Cove in the early 1940s, focusing on its natural beauty but also the way rock formations, kelp, seafoam, and other coastal life and geography could be pushed towards abstraction through close cropping and high contrast. Using his dynamic ability to manipulate shadow and light and highlight the texture of organic materials, Weston constructs a collage of textures in this image, with every element seeming alive and mysterious. Amy Conger, one of the foremost experts on Weston’s work, states of China Cove, Point Lobos, “while the black hole is the visual magnet of the composition, the illuminated rocks in the foreground define the space and keep the composition from floating away into a totally unarticulated abstraction…the kelp seems magic, and the water, electrically charged.”
Published ReferencesOther editions of Pepper No. 30 can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the Reina Sofia in Madrid, among many others.
Other editions of China Cove, Point Lobos are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the George Eastman Museum, the Nelson-Atkins, and many others.
Conger, Amy. Edward Weston: Photographs from the Collection of the Center for Creative Photography, 1992
Published ReferencesOther editions of Pepper No. 30 can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the Reina Sofia in Madrid, among many others.
Other editions of China Cove, Point Lobos are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the George Eastman Museum, the Nelson-Atkins, and many others.
Conger, Amy. Edward Weston: Photographs from the Collection of the Center for Creative Photography, 1992
Printer
Cole Weston
Alternate Title
Kelp, China Cove, Point Lobos
DimensionsBoard: 15 x 13 3/16 in. (38.1 x 33.5 cm)
Image: 9 7/16 x 7 1/2 in. (24 x 19.1 cm)
Image: 9 7/16 x 7 1/2 in. (24 x 19.1 cm)
Accession Number 2026.8
Classificationsphotograph
CopyrightARS
InscriptionsKELP, PIONT LOBOS, 1940 (verso u,r, graphite)
PL40-K-4 (verso u,l, graphite)
MarksNEGATIVE BY Edward Weston PRINT BY Cole Weston (verso center, ink)
ProvenanceCole Weston (Leiserowitz Gallery, Des Moines); Jack and Diane Robertson [purchased from the previous, 1977 -1979]; Des Moines Art Center [gift of the previous, 2026]
Patrick Nagatani
1988/2001
