New Photography Exhibition Kelli Connell: Pictures for Charis Juxtaposes Love and the Landscape in the 1930s and 2020s

Tags for: New Photography Exhibition Kelli Connell: Pictures for Charis Juxtaposes Love and the Landscape in the 1930s and 2020s
  • Press Release
Tuesday January 21, 2025
Person laying on their side looking at the camera

April, 2008. Kelli Connell (American, b. 1974). Pigmented inkjet print; 81.3 x 101.6 cm. Courtesy of the artist. © Kelli Connell

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Exhibition explores relationship dynamics through male and female lenses, and heterosexual and feminist and queer viewpoints.

CLEVELAND (January 21, 2025)—Kelli Connell: Pictures for Charis explores two love stories. In the newest exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA), American photographer Kelli Connell reconsiders the relationship between writer Charis (pronounced CARE-iss) Wilson and photographer Edward Weston through a close examination of Wilson’s prose and Weston’s iconic photographs of the Western landscape and the female nude. Connell weaves together the stories of Wilson and Weston with that of her own relationship with her partner at the time, Betsy Odom, enriching our understanding of the couple from her contemporary queer and feminist perspective. Opening Sunday, January 26, 2025, this free exhibition will be on view through Sunday, May 25, 2025, in the Mark Schwartz and Bettina Katz Photography Galleries. 

This exhibition juxtaposes Connell’s photographs with 45 classic figure studies and landscapes by Weston from 1934 to 1945, one of his most productive periods and the span of his relationship with Wilson. Using Weston and Wilson publications as a guide, Connell and Odom created portrait and landscape photographs at sites where Wilson and Weston lived, made art, and spent time together.  

Black and white image of a tree
Juniper, Lake Tenaya, 1937. Edward Weston (American, 1886-1958). Gelatin silver print; 24.1 x 18.9 cm. Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona: Transfer from the University of Arizona Museum of Art. © Center for Creative Photography, Arizona Board of Regents

“Weston and Connell share a profound reverence for the Western landscape. Weston’s views of those scenes became iconic and, to a certain extent, romanticized the West. Of necessity, Connell’s images are raw and less idealized,” said Barbara Tannenbaum, curator of photography, chair of prints, drawings, and photographs. “Our attitude toward the land and our knowledge of the changes our planet is experiencing have changed drastically since the 1930s, when the idea of Manifest Destiny and land as an inexhaustible resource still lingered from pioneer times."

Visitors to the exhibition will experience the difference in scale between Weston’s intimate, black-and-white gelatin silver prints, which sit on tables, and Connell’s large color and black-and-white inkjet prints, which hang on the wall. When shown side by side, Weston’s and Connell’s photographs also demonstrate the similarities and differences between the male and female gaze, heterosexual and feminist and queer viewpoints, and the nature of relationships in the 1930s and now. 

In the book that accompanies the exhibition, Kelli Connell: Pictures for Charis, Connell wrote that her portraits of Odom explore “our experiences as a couple, my attraction to her androgyny—and to questioning, through my photographs, societal expectations about gender and beauty and the roles that we perform within these constructs.” 

 

Two separate photos depict a person folded up with their head tucked towards their body
Left to right: Doorway II, 2015. Kelli Connell (American, b. 1974). Pigmented inkjet print; 50.8 x 63.5 cm. Courtesy of the artist. © Kelli Connell; Nude, 1936. Edward Weston (American, 1886-1958). Gelatin silver print; 24 x 19.1 cm. Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona: Edward Weston Archive/Gift of the Heirs of Edward Weston. © Center for Creative Photography, Arizona Board of Regents

Connell worked collaboratively when she made her photographs of Odom, purposefully upending conventional power dynamics where the photographer exerts creative control over a passive sitter. She enriches our understanding of Weston and Wilson’s relationship from her contemporary queer and feminist perspective. As she photographed her partner and the Western landscape, Connell notes, “this time, the images would be made by me, as a woman, photographer, partner.”  

It has been around 80 years since Weston made his photographs of the figure and the landscape. The exhibition considers the ways in which during the ensuing decades, attitudes toward both subjects have changed, impacted by changes in societal norms and threats to the land from urbanization, pollution, climate change, and other factors. 

Kelli Connell: Pictures for Charis is co-organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art; the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona, Center for Creative Photography, Tucson; and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta. A generous Foundation for Advancement in Conservation (FAIC)/Tru Vue® Conservation and Exhibition Grant and in-kind support of Optium Museum Acrylic® for preservation of this work was provided by Tru Vue, Inc. and Larson-Juhl. 

 

Exhibition Catalogue 

The accompanying book, copublished by Aperture and the Center for Creative Photography, provides fresh perspectives on portraiture examining gender, sexuality, and history through a queer and feminist lens. Delving into photography’s complexities, the monograph considers Charis Wilson not solely as a muse but as an individual with agency. Through Kelli Connell’s exploration, the book sheds light on overlooked aspects of history. 

 

Complementary Programming 

The Fran and Warren Rupp Contemporary Artists Lecture Kelli Connell on Pictures for Charis 
Saturday, February 8, 2025, 2:00–3:00 p.m. 
Gartner Auditorium 
Suzanne and Paul Westlake Performing Arts Center 
Free; Ticket Required 


Join photographer Kelli Connell as she discusses her work in the new exhibition Pictures for Charis, on view in the museum’s Mark Schwartz and Bettina Katz Photography Galleries (Gallery 230) through May 25. Connell uses photography to investigate sexuality, gender, identity, and the relationships between photographer and subject. In Pictures for Charis, Connell reconsiders the relationship between writer Charis (pronounced CARE-iss) Wilson and photographer Edward Weston while exploring Connell’s own relationship with her partner at the time, sculptor Betsy Odom.  

A professor at Columbia College in Chicago, Connell has photographs in the collections of major museums across the country, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, J. Paul Getty Museum, and Philadelphia Museum of Art. She has won numerous awards and residencies, including a Guggenheim Fellowship. 

This lecture is made possible by the Fran and Warren Rupp Contemporary Artist Fund.  

 

All education programs at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Education. Principal support is provided by Dieter and Susan M. Kaesgen. Major annual support is provided by Brenda and Marshall Brown, David and Robin Gunning, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, Gail C. and Elliott L. Schlang, Shurtape Technologies, and the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation. Generous annual support is provided by Gini and Randy Barbato, the M. E. and F. J. Callahan Foundation, Dr. William A. Chilcote Jr. and Dr. Barbara S. Kaplan, Char and Chuck Fowler, the Giant Eagle Foundation, Robin Heiser, the late Marta and the late Donald M. Jack Jr., Bill and Joyce Litzler, the Logsdon Family Fund for Education, Sarah Nash, William J. and Katherine T. O’Neill, William Roj and Mary Lynn Durham, Betty T. and David M. Schneider, the Sally and Larry Sears Fund for Education Endowment, Roy Smith, Paula and Eugene Stevens, the Trilling Family Foundation, and the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art. 

All exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Exhibitions. Principal annual support is provided by Michael Frank and the late Pat Snyder, the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation, the John and Jeanette Walton Exhibition Fund, and Margaret and Loyal Wilson. Major annual support is provided by the late Dick Blum and Harriet Warm and the Frankino-Dodero Family Fund for Exhibitions Endowment. Generous annual support is provided by two anonymous donors, Gini and Randy Barbato, Gary and Katy Brahler, Cynthia and Dale Brogan, Dr. Ben and Julia Brouhard, Brenda and Marshall Brown, Gail and Bill Calfee, Dr. William A. Chilcote Jr. and Dr. Barbara S. Kaplan, Joseph and Susan Corsaro, Ron and Cheryl Davis, Richard and Dian Disantis, the Jeffery Wallace Ellis Trust in memory of Lloyd H. Ellis Jr., Leigh and Andy Fabens, Florence Kahane Goodman, Janice Hammond and Edward Hemmelgarn, Robin Heiser, the late Marta and the late Donald M. Jack Jr., the estate of Walter and Jean Kalberer, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, the William S. Lipscomb Fund, Bill and Joyce Litzler, the Roy Minoff Family Fund, Lu Anne and the late Carl Morrison, Jeffrey Mostade and Eric Nilson and Varun Shetty, Sarah Nash, Tim O’Brien and Breck Platner, Dr. Nicholas and Anne Ogan, William J. and Katherine T. O’Neill, Henry Ott-Hansen, Christine Fae Powell, Peter and Julie Raskind, Michael and Cindy Resch, William Roj and Mary Lynn Durham, Betty T. and David M. Schneider, Saundra K. Stemen, Paula and Eugene Stevens, the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art, and Claudia Woods and David Osage. 

The Cleveland Museum of Art is funded in part by residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture. 

This exhibition was supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts. 

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About the Cleveland Museum of Art 

The Cleveland Museum of Art is renowned for the quality and breadth of its collection, which includes more than 66,500 artworks and spans 6,000 years of achievement in the arts. The museum is a significant international forum for exhibitions, scholarship, and performing arts and is a leader in digital innovations. One of the top comprehensive art museums in the nation, recognized for its award-winning open access program and free of charge to all, the Cleveland Museum of Art is located in the University Circle neighborhood.