Around 2003, George Woodman began incorporating a green wooden Pinocchio into the assemblages of toys, props and images he used to construct his photographs. Pinocchio is an iconic figure in Italian literature and culture, popularized by the classic children’s novel “The Adventures of Pinocchio,” written by Florentine author Carlo Collodi in the late 19th century. Woodman was interested in Pinocchio as the protagonist in his own picture stories.

Read about the work of Francesca Woodman in the new issue of XIBT Magazine. Included are an interview with the Foundation's Executive Director Lissa McClure and Dr. Kostas Prapoglou and images of some of the vintage photographs currently on view in "Francesca Woodman: Alternate Stories" at Marian Goodman Gallery New York through December 23, 2021.

This solo exhibition of vintage photographs by Francesca Woodman includes more than twenty previously unseen works and draws on the artist's writings about her practice in newly available archival material from the Foundation's holdings. The show presents thematic threads and groupings of images in relational contexts, offering a fresh perspective on Woodman's work.

The Woodman Family Foundation Archives include boxes and boxes of family photographs, spanning the early days George and Betty spent in Albuquerque where they welcomed their son Charlie into the world; to their move to a modernist home in Boulder—the site of many birthday parties, pottery sales, impromptu installations of paintings and Francesca’s earliest experiments with “dress up;” until just a few years ago enjoying breakfast with their grandson Alexander in both New York and Antella.

Our Executive Director Lissa McClure was recently in conversation with Brainard Carey on Yale Radio about Francesca Woodman’s upcoming solo exhibition “Francesca Woodman: Alternate Stories” at Marian Goodman Gallery, New York. They spoke about the inclusion of never-before-seen photographs and Woodman's own writings about her work, her compositional and conceptual grounding, and this exciting opportunity to view the work through new lenses.

"The Flames" takes a transhistorical approach to ceramics to assert the critical relationship of clay to both art and humankind. The exhibition combines ancient objects dating back to the Neolithic with those made by contemporary artists—including Betty Woodman—and everything in between.

Beginning in the summer of 1968, the Woodman Family spent every summer at their stone farmhouse in Antella, Italy, just outside of Florence. As children, Charlie and Francesca joined their parents and later visited on their own, soaking in Italian culture and influences. Betty and George made some of their most important artistic breakthroughs there—a place George once described as "an artist residency for two.” All summer long, their garden produced abundant food and flowers—the tomatoes were particularly good in August, happily shared with frequent visitors.

Last week was an exciting one at the Woodman Family Foundation. Upon their long-awaited return to New York, we were treated to a room full of George Woodman’s paintings. And wow we were bowled over by how fresh and contemporary these paintings feel, despite the fact that they were made some 50 years ago. We were struck by the subtle and shifting interplay of color and pattern and the raw intelligence of George's approach, which are slowly revealed over the course of a lingering look. What a pleasure to see these ambitious and original works in person.

On occasion, Betty Woodman translated her abiding interest in the subject of function into materials other than clay, always pushing the possibilities of a particular medium. In 1999, she began an ongoing collaboration with Fonderia Artistica Belfiore in Pietrasanta, Italy, an idea which came from a conversation with her longtime gallerist, Max Protetch and was in part inspired by fellow gallery artist Scott Burton’s sculptural furniture, as well as the formal Italian gardens she had spent decades exploring.

In the fall of 1982, the exhibition “Partitions” at Pratt Manhattan Center Gallery featured the work of 15 artists—including George Woodman—concerned with contemporary interpretations of screens. As hybrid sculptural, decorative, functional objects, partitions and interest in them were a kind of corollary to the burgeoning Pattern and Decoration Movement, and described by critic John Perreault, who wrote the exhibition’s essay, as “ubiquitous,” “a phenomenon,” and “a challenge to some preconceptions about art."

September of 1977 marked the start of new academic year for each of the Woodmans and the pursuit of teaching or studies in four different locations around the US and Europe. Francesca Woodman had just begun her fruitful year in Rome with the RISD European Honors Program, after spending some time in Antella. In a letter sent to her from Boulder, George Woodman recaps summer travels and reports on the rest of the family’s activities.

This ambitious survey of recent feminist practices in contemporary art begins with Lucy Lippard’s observation that feminist art is “a value system, a revolutionary strategy, a way of life.” While the majority of works on view were made in the first two decades of this century, highlighting the wide-ranging concerns and multiple perspectives of contemporary artists, influential works made by artists of earlier generations are also featured, including three photographs by Francesca Woodman.