Betty Woodman, Italy, 1995. Woodman Family Foundation Archives.
Betty Woodman, Italy, 1995. Woodman Family Foundation Archives.
IN CONVERSATION: Amy Sherlock and Judith Tannenbaum on BETTY WOODMAN moderated by Kyle Dancewicz, SculptureCenter Thursday, December 8, 2022
Please join us at 7 PM on Thursday, December 8, 2022 at SculptureCenter for Amy Sherlock and Judith Tannenbaum on Betty Woodman, a conversation discussing the artist’s life and work during the 1990s, a crucial period in her career.
L to R: Installation view, Max Protetch Gallery, New York, New York, 1986 / “Pillow Pitcher: Persian Silk,” 1982. 19 x 23 x 13 in. Collection of Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania / “Pesce Spada,” 1989. 11 x 26 x 21 in / “Indonesian Napkin Holder,” 1984. 18 1/2 x 22 1/2 x 10 in. Collection of Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York / “Vase and Shadow: Muscle Boys and Shadows,” 1984. 17 x 45 x 13 in / “Shelf and Vase: Gentian,” 1986. 27 x 16 x 8 in / Installation view, “The Art of Betty Woodman,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, 2006. Photo: Eli Ping. All artworks glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer, and paint. Image 2: Courtesy of Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. All artworks by Betty Woodman © Woodman Family Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Betty Woodman. Installation view, Max Protetch Gallery, New York, New York, 1986. Woodman Family Foundation Archives.
Betty Woodman works from the 1980s: "Betty Woodman: Conversations on the Shore, Works from the 1990s," David Kordansky Gallery, New York, New York, 2022
Betty Woodman began her career as a potter, inspired by a Bauhaus ethos to make beautiful objects for people to use in their daily lives. By 1980, when she and her husband George Woodman—a painter and photographer—purchased the New York City loft where they lived and worked for part of each year until the end of their lives, she had already begun moving away from the purely functional concerns of ceramics.
L to R: “Kimono Vases: October,” 1990. 30 3/4 x 43 x 9 1/2 in / “Still Life Vase: 9,” 1990. 31 1/2 x 30 x 8 in / “Double Vase Diptych,” 1996. 30 x 43 1/2 x 9 in / “Two Women Vase Diptych,” 1996. 24 x 44 x 6 in / “Beccafumi Vase Triptych,” 1996. 33 1/2 x 74 1/2 x 10 1/2 in / “Balustrade Relief Vase: 97-01,” 1997. 72 x 53 x 8 3/4 in. All artworks glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer, and paint. 1, 2 & 6: 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. “Kimono Vases ‘October’,” 1990. 30 3/4 x 43 x 9 1/2 in. © Woodman Family Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery. Photo: Phoebe d'Heurle.
Betty Woodman reviews from the 1990s: "Betty Woodman: Conversations on the Shore, Works from the 1990s," David Kordansky Gallery, New York, New York, 2022
The 1990s was a career-defining period for Betty Woodman in which her work in ceramic declared itself as painting and sculpture through her radical formal innovations. This shift was affirmed by contemporary art critics, who increasingly discussed her work in relation to sculpture and painting of the day.
L to R: All artworks Betty Woodman. "House of the South," 1994-1996. 159 x 246 x 9 1/2 in. Glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer, and paint / Images 1-2: Installation view, "Betty Woodman," Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1996 / Images 3: Installation view, "Betty Woodman,” Musée d’Art Contemporain, Dunkerque, France, 1997 / Images 4-5: Installation view, “Betty Woodman,” Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal, 1997 / Image 6: Installation view, “The Art of Betty Woodman,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, 2006. Photo: Eli Ping / Image 7: Installation view, "Strange Clay: Ceramics in Contemporary Art," Hayward Gallery, London, England, 2022. Photo: Mark Blower. Courtesy of the Hayward Gallery. Images 1-6: Woodman Family Foundation Archives.
Installation view, "Betty Woodman," Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1996. Woodman Family Foundation Archives.
Betty Woodman's "House of the South," 1994-1996 in "Strange Clay: Ceramics in Contemporary Art," Hayward Gallery, London, England, 2023
Betty Woodman’s touring exhibition which began at the Stedelijk in 1996 also included another major work: “House of the South” (1994-1996). Measuring more than 13 feet high by more than 20 feet wide, this ambitious frieze evolved from Woodman’s “Balustrade Relief Vase” series begun earlier in the decade, here incorporating multiple three-dimensional vases atop ceramic shelves, surrounded by flat ceramic relief elements implying architecture, plants and other vessels.
L to R: Images 1, 3, 5: Installation view, "Betty Woodman," Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1996. Woodman Family Foundation Archives / Image 2: “Women at the Fountain,” 1992. 86 x 144 x 57 in. Collection of the Flemish Community, Belgium / Image 4: “Conversations on the Shore,” 1994. 84 x 160 x 41 in / Image 6: “Sala da Pranzo,” 1995. 25 1/4 x 32 x 10 in. All artworks glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer, and paint / Image 7: Installation view, "Betty Woodman,” Musée d’Art Contemporain, Dunkerque, France, 1997. Images 4 & 6: Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery. Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle. All artworks by Betty Woodman © Woodman Family Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Installation view, "Betty Woodman," Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1996. Woodman Family Foundation Archives.
"Betty Woodman," Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1996: "Betty Woodman: Conversations on the Shore, Works from the 1990s," David Kordansky Gallery, New York
In September of 1996, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam opened “Betty Woodman,” a major exhibition of the artist’s work and her largest in Europe at that point. The works on view included two installations—“Women at the Fountain” (1992) and “Conversations on the Shore” (1994)—in which Woodman for the first time combined free-standing vases on the floor with an array of wall-mounted vases and flat ceramic elements.
L to R: “Balustrade Relief Vase: 52,” 1992. 82 x 45 x 10 in / “Athens,” 1991. 35 1/2 x 69 x 10 in / “Seashore,” 1998. 26 x 59 x 9 in. All artworks glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer and paint. All images 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: 52,” 1992. 82 x 45 x 10 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: Conversations on the Shore, Works from the 1990s," David Kordansky Gallery, New York, New York, 2022
This major solo exhibition—the first of the artist’s work in New York in six years—brings together a group of ceramic sculptures from a critical and career-defining period in Woodman’s practice.
L to R: “Three Views of Eleonora,” 2011. 18 x 24 in / “A Geometric Investigation II,” 2009. 24 x 20 in / “Variation on Vermeer,” 2010. 24 x 20 in / “Vermeer and Sleeping Eleonora,” 2010. 59 x 41 1/2 in / George Woodman with Eleonora Picheca, 2011. Courtesy Eleonora Picheca. All gelatin silver prints. All works by George Woodman © Woodman Family Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
George Woodman. “Three Views of Eleonora,” 2011. 18 x 24 in. Gelatin silver print © Woodman Family Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
George Woodman's photographs of model Eleonora Picheca, 2008-2012
Thanks to Eleonora for sharing a photo of her and George laughing together (last slide). It reminded us of some of the beautiful photographs George took of her over the years when she sat for him in Italy (2008-2012).
L to R: Charles Woodman, Venice, Italy, 1966 / Charles Woodman and Francesca Woodman, Venice, Italy, 1966 / Betty Woodman and Charles Woodman, Venice, Italy, 1966. Woodman Family Foundation Archives.
Charles Woodman, Venice, Italy, 1966. Woodman Family Foundation Archives.
The Woodmans in Venice, Italy, 1966
As this year’s Venice Biennale, “The Milk of Dreams,” nears its end, we’re reminded that over many decades Betty and George Woodman traveled to Venice to take in the Biennale. Their trip in 1966—pictured here—when the family spent the year in Italy, was likely Charlie and Francesca’s first of many visits there, to explore both the exhibition and this captivating city.
L to R: Spread from "Some Disordered Interior Geometries," c. 1980-81. Found notebook with artist's 16 lifetime gelatin silver prints, 24 pages + cover. 9 x 6 1/2 in. Included in the exhibition: First edition published by Synapse Press, 1981. | "I'm Trying My Hand at Fashion Photography," 1977, 4 11/16 x 4 15/16 in. Gelatin silver print | “Angels,” c. 1977-78, 3 13/16 x 3 3/4 in. Gelatin silver print. Artist's book image courtesy MACK. All artworks by Francesca Woodman © Woodman Family Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Spread from "Some Disordered Interior Geometries," c. 1980-81. Found notebook with artist's 16 lifetime gelatin silver prints, 24 pages + cover © Woodman Family Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Image courtesy MACK.
ON VIEW: Francesca Woodman in "Books Revisited," Center for Book Arts, New York, New York, 2022
Each of the works in this exhibition use existing books as raw material, examining ways that narrative, history and knowledge occupy space within and beyond the material and conceptual boundaries of books. Francesca Woodman created a number of artist’s books, attaching her photographs and writings into found books, often from Italy.
L to R: George Woodman, c. 1970s / “Loie with Sculpture as Herself,” 2007. Gelatin silver print / Painting, c. 1970s. Courtesy Remo Brindisi House Museum / George Woodman, c. 2010s. Woodman Family Foundation Archives. All artworks by George Woodman © Woodman Family Foundation / SIAE, Rome
George Woodman, c. 1970s. Woodman Family Foundation Archives.
ON VIEW: George Woodman in collection of Remo Brindisi House Museum, Lido Di Spina, Italy
George Woodman on view in this collection of Remo Brindisi House Museum, Lido Di Spina, Italy.
L to R: George Woodman. “Beauty is Truth,” 1976. 52 x 52 in. Acrylic on canvas. Image courtesy RISD Museum | Francesca Woodman. “Charlie the Model #10,” 1976, 5 5/16 x 5 3/8 in. Lifetime gelatin silver print | Betty Woodman. “Pillow Pitcher: Rain Forest,” c. 1980s. 20 x 24 x 16 in. Glazed earthenware © Woodman Family Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
George Woodman. “Beauty is Truth,” 1976. 52 x 52 in. Acrylic on canvas © Woodman Family Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Image courtesy RISD Museum.
RISD Museum Acquisitions
We’re thrilled that RISD Museum has acquired a group of important works by Betty, Francesca, and George Woodman from the Foundation’s holdings through a combination of museum funds and Foundation gifts. RISD occupies a singular place of importance for the Woodman family, from Francesca’s formative years there as a young artist and student to Betty’s 2005 solo exhibition at the museum and RISD Honorary Degree in 2009.
L to R: “Untitled,” c. 1979-80. 5 x 3 15/16 in. | Francesca Woodman's vintage fox fur from WFF Archives | “Untitled,” c. 1979-80. 7 1/2 x 4 3/4 in | “Untitled,” 1979, 5 13/16 x 5 13/16 in | “Untitled,” 1978, 34 1/2 x 40 1/2 in | “Untitled,” 1976. 5 3/4 x 5 3/4 in | “Untitled,” 5 7/8 x 5 7/8 in. All gelatin silver prints. All works by Francesca Woodman © Woodman Family Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Francesca Woodman. “Untitled,” c. 1979-80. 5 x 3 15/16 in. Gelatin silver print © Woodman Family Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Vintage fox fur from Francesca Woodman's archives used in her work, 1976-80
The Foundation’s archives include many of the dresses, shoes, scarves, gloves and other clothing that Francesca Woodman used in her photographs and in her daily life. This fox fur, probably picked up at a vintage shop or flea market like much that she wore, makes an appearance in many of her photographs.