Burned Car, Mojave Desert

Edward Weston, Printed by Cole Weston

1937; printed later

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This abstract welded bronze sculpture is made of a series of bronze rods emerging from a central, flat trapezoid of bronze with a small, c-shaped notch removed. Two bronze rods that appear to have hands at the ends emerge from either side of the central shape, alongside additional protruding rods, most of which are bent and welded to other rods. One rod protrudes upward at an angle and at the end is a metal oval divided in half by a smaller rod and then segmented by three still-smaller rods. At the bottom of the trapezoid seven rods protrude and create a base for the sculpture, attached to small, circular pieces of metal.
In this black and white graphite drawing, boats and airplanes move through fractured planes of water and sky. The drawing represents five boats on the water, one moving toward the mountainous shore and four stagnant on the water. In addition to four peaks, on the shore there is also a lodge. Above the peaks fly two biplanes, one swirling toward the top edge of the drawing and the other dipping toward the top of the peaks. At the bottom of the sheet the drawing is defined by a dark horizontal line and a blank piece of the page measuring about half of an inch.
Composition is hard-edge geometric work with planes of white, red, blue, green, gray, and black. It is evident from the surface of the work that some of the forms have been reworked. The center of the canvas contains the most movement, with blue, white, and gray triangles of varying sizes painted as if falling towards the ground. Painting is signed "M Pusey" on the lower left recto in rectangle of green paint. Verso has brown rectangle with Pusey's handwriting "Title-Dejygea" on top; "MEDIUM - OIL" in middle, and '"SIZE - 60" x 70"' on bottom.
The Lovers, George Biddle, lithograph