L to R: Cover of "Francesca Woodman: The Artist's Books,” MACK, London, UK, 2023 / All artist’s books by Francesca Woodman. Covers and spreads from “Some Disordered Interior Geometries," 1980 / "Quaderno dei Dettati e dei Temi," 1978-1980 / “Quaderno," 1978 / "Untitled (Pilgrim Mills)," 1977-1978 / "Angels, Calendar, Notebook," 1977-1978 / "Portraits, Friends, Equations," 1977-1978 / "Untitled (Self-Deceit)," 1978 / "Portrait of a Reputation," 1976-1977. Image courtesy MACK. © Woodman Family Foundation / DACS, London.
Cover of "Francesca Woodman: The Artist's Books,” MACK, London, UK, 2023.
COMING JUNE 2023: "Francesca Woodman: The Artist's Books,” MACK, London, England, 2023
"Francesca Woodman: The Artist’s Books" collects for the first time every page of all eight of Francesca Woodman’s unique artist’s books in one comprehensive volume, including two newly discovered books which have never before been seen alongside better-known titles such as "Some Disordered Interior Geometries."
L to R: Julia Margaret Cameron. Detail of "Sadness (Ellen Terry)," 1864. Albumen silver print. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 84.XZ.186.52 / Francesca Woodman. "Polka Dots #5," 1976. Gelatin silver print © Woodman Family Foundation / DACS, London
OPENING 2024: "Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron: Portraits to Dream In” at National Portrait Gallery, London, England, 2024
Photographers Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron are two of the most influential women in the history of photography. They lived a century apart – Cameron working in the UK and Sri Lanka from the 1860s, and Woodman in America and Italy from the 1970s. Both women explored portraiture beyond its ability to record appearance – using their own creativity and imagination to suggest notions of beauty, symbolism, transformation and storytelling.
L to R: Betty Woodman and George Woodman at Betty’s kiln, Antella, Italy, c. 1973. Woodman Family Foundation Archives / Betty Woodman. “Aztec Vase and Carpet: April,” 2016. 38 ½ x 58 x 43 in. Glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer, paint, and canvas / George Woodman. “Piazza San Francesco di Paola,” 1966. 32 x 32 in. Oil on canvas. Artworks © Woodman Family Foundation / DACS, London
Betty Woodman and George Woodman at Betty’s kiln, Antella, Italy, c. 1973. Woodman Family Foundation Archives.
UPCOMING: "Betty Woodman and George Woodman," Charleston, Lewes, East Sussex, England, 2023
“Betty Woodman and George Woodman” is the first UK exhibition to show both artists' work together, celebrating the work of ground-breaking American ceramic artist Betty Woodman and the painter and photographer George Woodman.
L to R: 1-5: Betty Woodman and George Woodman working in Bud and Barbara Shark’s studio, Holualoa, Hawaii, 1996 / 6: Betty Woodman and George Woodman in front of lava wall, City of Refuge, Hawaii, 1996 / 7–8: Betty Woodman and George Woodman, South Point, Hawaii, 1996. All photos by Barbara Shark. Woodman Family Foundation Archives..
Betty Woodman working in Bud and Barbara Shark’s studio, Holualoa, Hawaii, 1996. Photo by Barbara Shark. Woodman Family Foundation Archives.
Betty Woodman and George Woodman at Bud and Barbara Shark's studio, Holualoa, Hawaii, 1996
In January of 1996, Betty and George Woodman escaped a snowy Colorado winter to join their good friends Bud and Barbara Shark in Holualoa on the Big Island of Hawaii.
L to R: 1-8: Spreads from “George Woodman,” EYEMAZING 4, 2012 / "Loie and Florentine Aristocrat," 2008. 19 1/4 x 13 1/4 in. Oil paint on gelatin silver print / “La Pietra Madonna,” 2007. 12 x 15 in. Oil paint on gelatin silver print / “Nancy with a Green Leg,” 2005. 24 x 20 in. Oil paint on gelatin silver print / “Loie Wearing an 18th Century Sculpture,” 2012. 24 x 20 in. Oil paint on gelatin silver print / “Angel Grieving Over Lion,” 2007. 24 x 20 in. Oil paint on gelatin silver print / “In La Pietra Library,” 2009. 42 x 36 in. Oil paint on gelatin silver print / “Loie Meets a Rousseau,” 2009. 57 1/2 x 39 1/2 in. Gelatin silver print / “Loie Embraces a Piero di Cosimo,” 2009. 24 x 20 in. Gelatin silver print. All artworks by George Woodman © Woodman Family Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Spread from “George Woodman,” EYEMAZING 4, 2012. Woodman Family Foundation Archives.
George Woodman in "EYEMAZING Magazine," 2012
“The painted photographs of George Woodman are ripe with mental connections, rich evidence of the artist’s talent for noticing, for witnessing, for making new wholeness,” wrote Clayton Maxwell in a 2012 essay for EYEMAZING magazine, which accompanied a portfolio of his photographs combined with oil paint and other images.
Video still from "Betty Woodman: Conversations on the Shore, Works from the 1990s." Produced by David Kordansky Gallery. Studio footage of Betty Woodman excerpted from "Betty Woodman: Thinking Out Loud" (1991), © Charles Woodman. Voiceover excerpted from an interview with John Perreault. Exhibition footage by Sean Hanley. Editing by Destefano DeLuise.
Video for "Betty Woodman: Conversations on the Shore, Works from the 1990s," David Kordansky Gallery, New York, New York, 2022
Excerpt from the documentary “Betty Woodman: Thinking Out Loud,” 1991 © Charles Woodman.
Installation view, "Betty Woodman: Conversations on the Shore, Works from the 1990s," David Kordansky Gallery, New York, 2022. Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery. Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle.
"Betty Woodman: Conversations on the Shore, Works from the 1990s" featured in The New Yorker, December 2022
Read a review on "Betty Woodman: Conversations on the Shore, Works from the 1990s" by Johanna Fateman in The New Yorker. The exhibition is on view through December 17, 2023 at David Kordansky Gallery, New York.
Francesca Woodman. “Self-Portrait on That Same Day,” c. 1977. 5 5/16 x 5 1/4 in. Gelatin silver print © Woodman Family Foundation / BILDKUNST, Bonn
ON VIEW: Francesca Woodman in “FEMME FATALE. Gaze—Power—Gender," Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany, 2023
Francesca Woodman in “FEMME FATALE. Gaze—Power—Gender” at Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany. On view through April 10, 2023. Curated by Dr. Markus Bertsch.
L to R: Installation views, "Betty Woodman: Conversations on the Shore, Works from the 1990s," David Kordansky Gallery, New York, 2022. All images Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery. Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle.
Installation view, "Betty Woodman: Conversations on the Shore, Works from the 1990s," David Kordansky Gallery, New York, 2022. Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery. Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle.
“Betty Woodman: Conversations on the Shore, Works from the 1990s," David Kordansky Gallery, New York, New York, 2022
Of this group of works from the 1990s, many not seen for decades, Johanna Fateman wrote in her recent review in The New Yorker: “As with everything on view in this wonderful show, the installation is so gestural and so fluid that it’s easy to forget that the ecstatic whole is composed of brittle parts.”
L to R: “Balustrade Relief Vase 6-94,” 1994. 62 x 47 x 9 in / “Balustrade Relief Vase 97-01,” 1997. 72 x 53 x 8 3/4 in / “Balustrade Relief Vase 96-11,” 1996. 68 1/2 x 74 x 9 in / “Balustrade Relief Vase 96-2,” 1996. 68 x 73 x 10 in / “Balustrade Relief Vase 03-3,” 2003. 48 x 110 x 9 1/2 in / Installation view, "Betty Woodman,” Museo Marino Marini, Florence, Italy, 2015. Woodman Family Foundation Archives / “Of Botticelli,” 2013. 10 1/2 ft x 32 ft x 3/4 in / “Wallpaper: 16,” 2017. 112 x 209 x 1 in / "Wallpaper: 19,” 2017. 65 x 59 in / “Outside and In,” 2017. 75 1/2 x 120 x 10 1/2 in. Images 1-9: All artworks glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer, and paint / Image 10: Glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer, paint, canvas, and wood. 1-4: Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery. Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle. All artworks by Betty Woodman © Woodman Family Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Betty Woodman. “Balustrade Relief Vase 6-94,” 1994. 62 x 47 x 9 in. Glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer, and paint © Woodman Family Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery. Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle.
Betty Woodman's "Balustrade Relief Vases," 1990s: "Betty Woodman: Conversations on the Shore, Works from the 1990s," David Kordansky Gallery, New York, New York, 2022
The Balustrade Relief Vases, which Betty Woodman began making in the 1990s, were a turning point in her work, in which she fully embraced the space and concerns of painting, through sculptural materials.
Betty Woodman in her studio, New York, 1996. Photo and copyright Mary Ellen Mark
"Betty Woodman: Conversations on the Shore, Works from the 1990s" featured in The New York Times, October 2022
Read a review on "Betty Woodman: Conversations on the Shore, Works from the 1990s" by Jane L. Levere in The New York Times. The exhibition is currently on view through December 17 at David Kordansky Gallery, New York.
L to R: 1-2: “Kimono Vases: January” or "Kimono Vases: 2," 1995. 28 1/2 x 45 x 9 3/4 in / “Untitled Diptych,” c. 1994. 28 1/2 x 51 x 8 1/2 in / “Seashore,” 1998. 25 3/4 x 57 x 8 1/2 in / “Green Nude,” 2007. 33 x 33 3/4 x 6 3/4 in / “After the Bath,” 2011. 35 x 37 x 7 in / Images 7-8: “Fair Welcome and Pleasure,” 2008. 33 x 78 1/4 x 7 1/2 in / Images 9-10: “Kabuki Diptych,” 2016. 35 x 67 x 8 in. All artworks glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer, and paint. © Woodman Family Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Betty Woodman. “Kimono Vases: January” or "Kimono Vases: 2," 1995. 28 1/2 x 45 x 9 3/4 in. Glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer, and paint © Woodman Family Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery. Photo: Phoebe d'Heurle.
Betty Woodman's "Kimono Vases" and "Diptychs," 1990s: "Betty Woodman: Conversations on the Shore, Works from the 1990s," David Kordansky Gallery, New York, October 29-December 17, 2022
"The evolution of the Kimono Vases began with three-part vases, or triptychs. I thought about the movement from one piece to another; in and out of the negative and positive shapes so that it ultimately became one. The triptychs got bigger and the handles became flat, more abstract and complicated,” Betty Woodman wrote in 1991.