Betty Woodman and George Woodman
Charleston, East Sussex, UK
March 25 - September 10, 2023
Representing a decades-long dialogue in ceramics and paint, Betty Woodman and George Woodman brought together for the first time in the UK the artists’ vibrant ceramics, vivid paintings, radical assemblages, and photographs, illuminated by archival materials. 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 explored the artists’ mutual influences and their shared life immersed in art, culture, travel and experimentation, reflected in kindred palettes and patterns.
Charleston is housed on the grounds of the home, studios, and gardens shared by Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant and frequented by their family and friends from the Bloomsbury Group.
Here you’ll find a round-up of press about the exhibition; video vignettes on individual works; a video comprising footage of the artists talking about their lives and work in Italy; and our own “backstories,” including additional artworks and archival images which shed further light on works, themes, and influences in the exhibition.
Please visit Charleston’s website to learn more.
Press and Publications
Videos
Exhibition video and vignettes by Charleston on the occasion of the exhibition.
Exhibition video and vignettes by Charleston on the occasion of the exhibition.
In this video, Chris Kraus, the American critic and writer, talks through Francesca Woodman's artistic process.
In this video, Drew Sawyer, the Brooklyn Museum's Phillip Leonian and Edith Rosenbaum Leonian Curator, discusses Woodman's historical references and artistic affinities among her and her peers.
In this video, Ann Gabhart, Woodman Family Foundation Board member, former Director of the Wellesley College Museum, and curator of Woodman’s first solo museum exhibition at Wellesley and Hunter Colleges in 1986, reflects on her early experiences with and impressions of Woodman’s work.
In this video, Isolde Brielmaier, Deputy Director of the New Museum and the Curator-at-Large at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York, shares her thoughts on Woodman’s use of the body and the nude in her highly crafted photographs.
In this video, Kevin Moore, a New York based curator and writer, on Woodman's Victorian aesthetic, identity exploration and the artist's role in her artistic narrative.
In this video, Elisabeth Sussman, the Curator and Sondra Gilman Curator of Photography at the Whitney Museum of American Art, contextualizes Woodman's work within the framework of its era.
In this video, Sabina Mirri, Italian artist and close friend of Woodman, shares her memories and impressions of Woodman as a singular, compelling young woman and artist during her time in Rome.
In this video, Rosalind Krauss, art critic and theorist and Columbia University professor, discusses her initial responses to Woodman’s photographs when co-curating the retrospective exhibition at Hunter and Wellesley Colleges in 1986. She advocates for the formal power and intelligence of Woodman’s work, then and still today.
Exhibition video and vignettes by Charleston on the occasion of the exhibition.
Exhibition video and vignettes by Charleston on the occasion of the exhibition.
Exhibition video and vignettes by Charleston on the occasion of the exhibition.
Exhibition video and vignettes by Charleston on the occasion of the exhibition.
Backstories
Additional artwork and archival images from Betty Woodman and George Woodman’s archives which shed light on works, themes and influences in the exhibition.
Additional artwork and archival images from Betty Woodman and George Woodman’s archives which shed light on works, themes and influences in the exhibition.
Additional artwork and archival images from Betty Woodman and George Woodman’s archives which shed light on works, themes and influences in the exhibition.
Additional artwork and archival images from Betty Woodman and George Woodman’s archives which shed light on works, themes and influences in the exhibition.
Additional artwork and archival images from Betty Woodman and George Woodman’s archives which shed light on works, themes and influences in the exhibition.
Additional artwork and archival images from Betty Woodman and George Woodman’s archives which shed light on works, themes and influences in the exhibition.