Francesca Woodman: Alternate Stories
Marian Goodman Gallery, New York
November 2–December 23, 2021
Francesca Woodman: Alternate Stories was a solo presentation of vintage photographs by Francesca Woodman at Marian Goodman Gallery, New York from November 2 - December 23, 2021. The exhibition included more than twenty previously unseen works, and drew on the artist's writings about her practice in newly available archival material from the Foundation's holdings. The show presented thematic threads and groupings of images in relational contexts, offering a fresh perspective on Woodman's work.
Here you'll find a round-up of press about the exhibition; video vignettes by an array of art historians, curators and artists speaking on Woodman's photographs; and our own "backstories," which share additional archival materials and images which shed light on specific works in the exhibition.
Please also visit Marian Goodman Gallery's website to learn more about the exhibition and the related catalogue with a newly commissioned essay by novelist and critic Chris Kraus.
Press and Publications
Videos
Video vignettes by scholars, curators, and artists commissioned by Marian Goodman Gallery on the occasion of the exhibition: Chris Kraus, Drew Sawyer, Isolde Brielmaier, Kevin Moore, Elisabeth Sussman, Sabina Mirri, and Rosalind Krauss.
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this video, Drew Sawyer, the Brooklyn Museum's Phillip Leonian and Edith Rosenbaum Leonian Curator, discusses Woodman's historical references and artistic affinities among her and her peers.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.
Backstories
Additional images and materials from Woodman’s archive which shed light on her process and elaborate on specific works in the exhibition.
