Betty
Woodman
1930—2018
Francesca
Woodman
1958—1981
George
Woodman
1932—2017
Our Mission
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The Woodman Family Foundation was established by Betty Woodman (1930-2018) and George Woodman (1932-2017) during their lifetimes. Love of beauty was at the heart of their lives and art. In this spirit, the Foundation is dedicated to stewarding the artistic legacies of Betty, George, and their daughter, Francesca Woodman (1958-1981).
Latest
Major acquisition by the Art Institute of Chicago
Thrilled to announce that the Art Institute of Chicago has acquired 30 important lifetime works by Francesca Woodman from the Foundation’s holdings. With the breadth and depth of this acquisition, the Art Institute now owns the largest institutional collection of the artist’s lifetime works and has become a major center for its preservation and public display.
CLOSING Saturday, May 3: "George Woodman: A Democracy of Parts, Paintings 1966-1978," DC Moore Gallery, 2025
This week is your last chance to see George Woodman: A Democracy of Parts, Paintings 1966-1978, an exhibition tracing the development of Woodman’s singular approach to pattern and color over a series of paintings rarely shown in New York in more than 40 years.
George Woodman in "George Woodman: Paintings 1962-1963," Henderson Gallery, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado
In December of 1963, George Woodman opened an exhibition of his recent paintings at the Henderson Gallery at University of Colorado, Boulder, where he also taught painting and philosophy of art. These paintings—made in 1962 and 1963—moved away from the loose abstraction he had previously applied to painting the landscape and towards an approach that recalled maps and aerial views.
The Criss-Cross and Pattern & Decoration Movements. "George Woodman: A Democracy of Parts, Paintings 1966-1978"
By the mid-70s, George Woodman’s singular approach to pattern painting—as harmony between color and form—was well established and recognized among artists and critics alike. Woodman’s canvases were part of the larger zeitgeist around pattern in the art of this period.
Idiosyncratic use of color. "George Woodman: A Democracy of Parts, Paintings 1966-1978"
Pattern paintings made up of repeating forms can tend towards uniformity or sameness, but not so for George Woodman. Instead, he integrated color into his pattern systems as an equal to form rather than a subordinate, constructing compositions in which color steers and complicates the viewer’s perception.
George Woodman's geometric sculptures. "George Woodman: A Democracy of Parts, Paintings 1966-1978"
George Woodman’s tessellated pattern paintings built upon observations made in the three-dimensional realm of architecture, specifically in the tiled surfaces that covered walls and floors as they emerged from and receded into space.
George Woodman's tessellations. "George Woodman: A Democracy of Parts, Paintings 1966-1978"
Tessellations are a type of pattern in which one or more geometric shapes are repeated—and often rotated and reflected—to seamlessly cover a surface. In George Woodman’s case, that surface was a canvas.
George Woodman in dialogue with New York minimalist painters. “George Woodman: A Democracy of Parts, Paintings 1966-1978”
In her essay for the exhibition’s catalogue—“The Mind as it Measures: George Woodman’s Patterns”—curator Rebecca Skafsgaard Lowery discusses Woodman’s approach to pattern and color in the context of his contemporaries.
George Woodman's travels to Alhambra, Granada, Spain. "George Woodman: A Democracy of Parts, Paintings 1966-1978," DC Moore Gallery, New York
In 1965, George Woodman visited Granada, Spain to see the Alhambra, the iconic monument to Islamic architecture where geometry, ornamentation and architecture harmoniously converge in a multitude of tiled and carved surfaces.
George Woodman's year in Florence, Italy. "George Woodman: A Democracy of Parts, Paintings 1966-1978," DC Moore Gallery, New York
From the fall of 1965 through the summer of 1966, George Woodman spent the year living and working near Florence, Italy. It was in this year that the presence of pattern and attention to color that characterized his earlier paintings took a definitive turn.
OPENING April 3: "George Woodman: A Democracy of Parts, Paintings 1966-1978," DC Moore Gallery, New York, 2025
Focusing on geometric abstractions from a significant period within the artist's six-decade career, this exhibition traces the development of George Woodman's singular approach to pattern.
Aperiodic tiling. "George Woodman: A Democracy of Parts, Paintings 1966-1978"
By 1977, George Woodman’s tessellation paintings became non-periodic or aperiodic, consisting of a set of shapes which tiled the canvas but did not necessarily repeat.