An exhibition of 35 black and white photos by Pedro E. Guerrero, many depicting the architecture for which New Canaan is famous, will open next month at New Canaan Historical Society.
Pedro E. Guerrero: The Photographer of Mid-Century New Canaan opens Sept. 28.
This exhibition will coincide with the Modern House Day Tour on Oct. 20. A second gallery will be devoted to the life of Guerrero and his family in New Canaan during some of the town’s most tumultuous —and interesting—years.
Guerrero is internationally known for his work with the architect Frank Lloyd Wright and the sculptors Alexander Calder and Louise Nevelson, as well as his photographs of modernist houses for the popular shelter magazines of the “Mad Men” era.
Like many of the architects Guerrero documented, he moved to then-rural New Canaan just after service in World War II and began building his own modernist house.
He became an active member of the community and a strong voice against the Vietnam war, making national headlines as “The Dove on the Draft Board.”
Where he lived
Guerrero lived in both 442 and the present 569 Brookside Road. The numbering was changed at some point, his daughter Susan Guerrero said in an email exchange with the Historical Society.
“The original house was a rustic shingled summer cottage, high on a hill, with no hot water (and I was two and my brother was four months old),” she said.
The house was shaded by a Japanese maple and had a Victorian gazebo left over from the division of the property from a big white house below it, and also a small apple orchard, Susan said.“
My father renovated the cottage and built and designed a Wrightian addition with help from David Henken of the Usonian development in Pleasantville, N.Y. Dad and Mom did a lot of the work themselves. That house was completed in 1956.The old cottage got many new windows and golden cypress siding and the two-story addition was of golden cypress and pink cinder block. A large flagstone terrace united the whole,” she explained.
Tragically it burned down in 1976 and Pedro’s first wife Barbara was killed in the fire, Susan said.
He rebuilt at the same location. Part of the old house, a 1956 wing, was saved, with a separate entrance. Both of the houses were later torn down and replaced “with something more conventional,” Susan said.
Pedro had studios in New Canaan on Grove Street and above Martin’s Men’s Store on Main Street, now Ching’s Table.
Guerrero died in Arizona in 2012.
This exhibition includes memorabilia.
Other events associated with this exhibit: On Sept. 30 at 3 p.m., Pedro E. Guerrero’s Significant Work: A Talk with Emily Bills and Dixie Legler Guerrero; showings Oct. 11 at 11 am, 1 p.m., 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. of the PBS American Masters, a documentary on Guererro; and Memories & Margaritas: A Dinner Discussion with the Guerrero Family on Nov. 4 at 5 p.m. Members of the Guerrero family will share stories and anecdotes while guests enjoy a Mexican meal.
There will be an opening reception on Sept. 28 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Society, 13 Oenoke Ridge Road.
For tickets and more information about this exhibition, visit nchistory.org.
The post Pedro Guerrero Mid-Century New Canaan photo exhibition to open appeared first on New Canaan Advertiser.