Francesca Woodman, Gagosian
Gagosian, New York. March 13–April 27, 2024
Gagosian's inaugural exhibition of works by Francesca Woodman featured more than fifty lifetime prints—many of which have not been previously exhibited—including Blueprint for a Temple (II) (1980), the largest work she accomplished.
The exhibition presents key prints from approximately 1975 through 1980. Photographing in Providence, Rhode Island; Rome; Ravenna, Italy; and New York, Woodman situated herself and others within dilapidated interiors and ancient architecture to compose her tableaux. Using objects such as chairs and plinths along with architectural elements including doorways, walls, and windows, she staged contrasts with the performative presence of the figures, presenting the body itself as sculpture.
On view for the first time since spring 1980, when it was included in Beyond Photography 80, a group exhibition at the Alternative Museum in New York, Blueprint for a Temple (II) is a collage assembled from twenty-four diazotype elements and four gelatin silver prints. Using diazotype, a medium typically employed to create architectural blueprints, allowed Woodman to work at a monumental scale. The composition depicts the right half of a temple façade and features four caryatids—female figures who form columns in classical architecture. The most famous examples of these features are on the Erechtheion at the Acropolis in Athens, which Woodman visited multiple times.
Please also visit Gagosian's website to learn more about the exhibition and the related catalogue with a newly commissioned essay by classics scholar Brooke Holmes.
Press and Publications
Reviews of the exhibition by: Arthur Lubow, Katie White, Ted Loos, Corey Keller & Putri Tan, Jackson Arn, and Daniel Grant; Canvia ArtSense podcast with Craig Gould.
Reviews of the exhibition by: Arthur Lubow, Katie White, Ted Loos, Corey Keller & Putri Tan, Jackson Arn, and Daniel Grant; Canvia ArtSense podcast with Craig Gould.
Reviews of the exhibition by: Arthur Lubow, Katie White, Ted Loos, Corey Keller & Putri Tan, Jackson Arn, and Daniel Grant; Canvia ArtSense podcast with Craig Gould.
Reviews of the exhibition by: Arthur Lubow, Katie White, Ted Loos, Corey Keller & Putri Tan, Jackson Arn, and Daniel Grant; Canvia ArtSense podcast with Craig Gould.
Reviews of the exhibition by: Arthur Lubow, Katie White, Ted Loos, Corey Keller & Putri Tan, Jackson Arn, and Daniel Grant; Canvia ArtSense podcast with Craig Gould.
Reviews of the exhibition by: Arthur Lubow, Katie White, Ted Loos, Corey Keller & Putri Tan, Jackson Arn, and Daniel Grant; Canvia ArtSense podcast with Craig Gould.
Videos
Videos commissioned by Gagosian: timelapse and installation of Blueprint for a Temple (II); installation video of the exhibition
Videos commissioned by Gagosian: timelapse and installation of Blueprint for a Temple (II); installation video 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.
Videos commissioned by Gagosian: timelapse and installation of Blueprint for a Temple (II); installation video of the exhibition
Videos commissioned by Gagosian: timelapse and installation of Blueprint for a Temple (II); installation video of the exhibition
Videos commissioned by Gagosian: timelapse and installation of Blueprint for a Temple (II); installation video of the exhibition
Videos commissioned by Gagosian: timelapse and installation of Blueprint for a Temple (II); installation video of the exhibition
Backstories
Additional images and materials from Woodman’s archive which shed light on her process and elaborate on specific works in the exhibition.
Additional images and materials from Woodman’s archive which shed light on her process and elaborate on specific works in the exhibition.
Additional images and materials from Woodman’s archive which shed light on her process and elaborate on specific works in the exhibition.
Additional images and materials from Woodman’s archive which shed light on her process and elaborate on specific works in the exhibition.
Additional images and materials from Woodman’s archive which shed light on her process and elaborate on specific works in the exhibition.
Additional images and materials from Woodman’s archive which shed light on her process and elaborate on specific works in the exhibition.