Our archival intern Erin Moss, who is in her second year at the Pratt School of Information earning her MLIS, has been processing George Woodman's extensive slide collection this semester. The slide collection consists of thousands of 35mm or medium format slides from the 1950s through the early 2000s documenting both George's work and personal life. Erin has been struck by the experience of discovering an artist through their own archival materials.

This solo presentation of wall-based works by Woodman focuses on the culminating phase of her 60-year career. The paintings on view--on canvas, ceramic, and paper--illuminate the artist's daring approach to materials and radical explorations of two- and three-dimensional form.

As the child of artists, Francesca Woodman grew up on the periphery of the Fine Arts Department at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where her father, George Woodman, taught painting and the philosophy of art. Well-versed as she was from a young age in art history and contemporary art, Francesca was famously precocious in asserting her own ideas. In this series of photographs, which she gifted to her father, she humorously and good-naturedly carves out her own position as an artist, bursting through a poster for his 1976 lecture on minimalist heavy-weight Sol LeWitt, replacing it with a poster for her own exhibition at the Addison Gallery, and then herself.

"…[T]hings have a life, greater or smaller, in the eye and the mind. This life unfolds, no limits can be set upon it, and the way it happens may be similar or very dissimilar from one person to another,” George Woodman wrote of objects generally, when considering those housed in museum collections, but these observations illuminate his own approach to still life and photography. The Woodman Family Foundation Archives include an eclectic array of found objects, toys and fabrics used by Woodman in his photographs.

RE/SISTERS reflects on a range of themes related to eco-feminism, unpacking alternate relationships to the natural world which often resist the logic of capitalism, as well as environmental and gender justice. Fifteen photographs by Woodman—many of which have rarely or never before been seen—explore the figure in relation to the landscape.

Join us this THURSDAY for Italian Inspirations - a free program celebrating the ongoing exhibition, “Distant Conversations: Ella Walker and Betty Woodman,” on view now through October 22. Katarina Jerinic, Collections Curator at The Woodman Family Foundation, will offer deeper insight into how Betty Woodman’s time in Italy influenced her singular approach to ceramic sculpture, paired with a presentation from the Currier’s Chief Curator Lorenzo Fusi highlighting the influence of Italian fresco on Ella Walker’s work.

The Henri-Cartier Bresson Foundation celebrates its 20th anniversary with a campaign of posters in various Paris metro stations highlighting the 70 exhibitions presented since its inception. An image from Francesca Woodman’s 2016 exhibition is currently on view in the Hôtel de Ville station. 

Curated by Justine Kurland, this exhibition brings together 44 artists whose works resonate with Jay DeFeo’s cumulative use of materials, including Wangechi Mutu, Hannah Wilke, Moyra Davey, K8 Hardy, Joiri Minaya, Lee Bontecou, and Ruth Asawa, among others. Conceived by Kurland as an homage to DeFeo’s monumental sculptural painting “The Rose” (1958-66), the assembled works on view together from an exhibition as collage.

READING ROOM highlights past essays, reviews and interviews about Betty Woodman, Francesca Woodman, and George Woodman that provided new insights and lenses through which to understand their work. In this interview with Selva Barni, published in "Purple Magazine" in 2017, Betty Woodman talks about taking chances in her work and life, her relationship to feminism, her shift from potter to sculptor, and much more.

Read Karen Chernick's review in "The Brooklyn Rail" on "Francesca Woodman: The Artist's Books" published by MACK.

Last chance to see this unique exhibition, the first two-person presentation of Betty Woodman’s and George Woodman’s work in the UK. Focused on the couple's prolific time at their farmhouse in Antella, Italy—where they lived and worked for part of each year for nearly fifty years—the exhibition explores the artists’ mutual influences and their shared life immersed in art, culture, travel and experimentation, reflected in kindred palettes and patterns. Catch a glimpse of their Italian studios and home and hear them speak about the importance of Italy to their work in this exhibition video, assembled from interviews in the Woodman Family Foundation archives.

The Woodmans’ travels also took them beyond the historical and cultural capitals of Europe. For Betty and George, this included trips to India, China, Japan, Korea, and more than one visit to Mexico—a country where they spent three months on their honeymoon in the summer of 1953. Here they are in the 1980s exploring the ancient Mayan city of Uxmal, home to the Pyramid of the Magician, as well as some of Yucatan’s more recent architectural gems.