Frederick Weston
Body 'Maps' (Arm 1)2017

Not on view

Collage of overlapping wristwatch and clock face photographs cut and assembled into the silhouette of a flexed human arm and bicep on white paper

Print collage densely layered with cut-out images of wristwatches, clocks, and an hourglass. A large Noblia perpetual calendar watch with moon phase complication dominates the center-right, surrounded by overlapping timepieces in gold, silver, and brown tones, including branded DKNY and Seiko watches. A partial clock face with bold numerals fills the lower center background.

Artist or Maker: Frederick Weston
United States, 1946–2020, active New York City
Title: Body 'Maps' (Arm 1)
Date Made: 2017
Medium: Collage of magazine clippings, graphite, and colored pencil on paper
Dimensions: Frame: 23 1/4 × 23 1/4 × 1 1/2 in. (59.06 × 59.06 × 3.81 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Burton Aaron
Accession Number: M.2022.267.7
Classification: Collages
Collecting Area: Prints and Drawings
Curatorial Notes: Frederick Weston was an interdisciplinary self-taught artist who accumulated a treasure trove of imagery from diverse sources that became tools for his artistic explorations, many of which focus on his lifelong fascination with men’s fashion. Weston made most of his works inside his various homes—all small, single-occupancy hotel rooms—while sitting on his bed, which also served as a table, chair, and easel. This collage is from his series Body Maps, in which he used his own body to create outlines, then filled them with assemblages of images appropriated from magazines, newspapers, and advertisements, often duplicated via Xerox machine.

Body Maps (Arm 1) began with a penciled outline of the artist’s shoulder with raised arm and clenched fist—a pose that communicates Weston’s innate strength despite the racial discrimination he routinely faced. Within this space, he densely applied imagery of watch faces and watchbands, with models ranging from simple utilitarian to diamond-encrusted luxury. Weston’s body transforms into an abstract shape, and the many timepieces serve as markers of the ticking of time—a prescient gesture, in light of the artist’s death a few years after the collage was made.

Claudine Dixon

2023
Selected Bibliography: Schillo, Eve, and Claudine Dixon. Before You Now: Capturing the Self in Portraiture; Ante Usted: La Captura del Ser en el Retrato. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2024.
Copyright: © The Estate of Frederick Weston

Frederick Weston
Body 'Maps' (Arm 1)2017

Not on view

Artist or Maker: Frederick Weston
United States, 1946–2020, active New York City
Title: Body 'Maps' (Arm 1)
Date Made: 2017
Medium: Collage of magazine clippings, graphite, and colored pencil on paper
Dimensions: Frame: 23 1/4 × 23 1/4 × 1 1/2 in. (59.06 × 59.06 × 3.81 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Burton Aaron
Accession Number: M.2022.267.7
Classification: Collages
Collecting Area: Prints and Drawings
Curatorial Notes: Frederick Weston was an interdisciplinary self-taught artist who accumulated a treasure trove of imagery from diverse sources that became tools for his artistic explorations, many of which focus on his lifelong fascination with men’s fashion. Weston made most of his works inside his various homes—all small, single-occupancy hotel rooms—while sitting on his bed, which also served as a table, chair, and easel. This collage is from his series Body Maps, in which he used his own body to create outlines, then filled them with assemblages of images appropriated from magazines, newspapers, and advertisements, often duplicated via Xerox machine.

Body Maps (Arm 1) began with a penciled outline of the artist’s shoulder with raised arm and clenched fist—a pose that communicates Weston’s innate strength despite the racial discrimination he routinely faced. Within this space, he densely applied imagery of watch faces and watchbands, with models ranging from simple utilitarian to diamond-encrusted luxury. Weston’s body transforms into an abstract shape, and the many timepieces serve as markers of the ticking of time—a prescient gesture, in light of the artist’s death a few years after the collage was made.

Claudine Dixon

2023
Selected Bibliography: Schillo, Eve, and Claudine Dixon. Before You Now: Capturing the Self in Portraiture; Ante Usted: La Captura del Ser en el Retrato. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2024.