From the Archives
A look back
L to R: 1-6: Betty Woodman. “Impruneta Flower Pots,” c. 1998-2004. Variable dimensions. Terracotta. Views in Antella, Italy | Betty Woodman with Tullio Orlandi, Italy, c. 1998-2004. Woodman Family Foundation Archives.
Betty Woodman. “Impruneta Flower Pots,” c. 1998-2004. Variable dimensions. Terracotta. Views in Antella, Italy. Woodman Family Foundation Archives.
Betty Woodman, "Impruneta Flowers Pots," c. 1998-2004, Antella, Italy
Over summers spent in Antella, Italy, Betty Woodman often developed projects which could only be realized there. From 1998-2004, she collaborated with a pottery in Impruneta—a nearby town renowned for its terra cotta clay—enlivening their standard-issue garden planters with her vase-shaped façades and signature brushstrokes.
L to R: "War Sadness Escape," 1999. 42 x 39 in. | 2 & 4: Installation views, “Contrapposto & Other Stories,” Jeff Bailey Gallery, New York, 2014 | "Boboli: Fountain of Neptune,” 1997. 71 3/4 x and 41 1/4 in. All gelatin silver prints. All works by George Woodman © Woodman Family Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
George Woodman. “War Sadness Escape,” 1999. 42 x 39 in. Gelatin silver print © Woodman Family Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
George Woodman's camera obscura photographs in "Contrapposto & Other Stories," Jeff Bailey Gallery, New York, 2014
Summertime is here again, and each year it has brought with it a fresh crop of summer group shows around New York City. Here’s one from 2014: George Woodman’s camera obscura photographs were included in “Contrapposto & Other Stories,” curated by Katia Rosenthal at Jeff Bailey Gallery in Chelsea.
L to R: 1-2: Installation views of Betty Woodman's “Horizontal Garden” (2005), The Great Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2006. 29 x 32 x 18 in. Glazed earthenware | Installation view of “The Art of Betty Woodman,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, April 25—July 30, 2006. Photo: Eli Ping
Installation view of Betty Woodman's “Horizontal Garden” (2005), The Great Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2006. 29 x 32 x 18 in. Glazed earthenware. Photo: Eli Ping.
Betty Woodman, Met Vases, 2006
Spring flowers always remind us of Betty Woodman, and particularly her vases in the Great Hall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which greeted visitors to the museum with their bold colors, overlapping patterns and allusions to vases and gardens, holding an ever-changing display of seasonal blooms. They were installed on the occasion of her 2006 retrospective there—the first time the museum dedicated such an exhibition to a living woman artist.
L to R: Exhibition poster for ‘George Woodman,’ Spectrum Gallery, 1970. Woodman Family Foundation Archives | “Untitled,” c. 1968-69, 30 x 22 1/4 in. Screenprint on paper | “Untitled,” 1975, 60 x 60 in. Acrylic on canvas. All works by George Woodman © Woodman Family Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Exhibition poster for ‘George Woodman,’ Spectrum Gallery, 1970. Woodman Family Foundation Archives.
George Woodman, Spectrum Gallery, 1970
Fifty-two years ago this week would have been your last chance to see George Woodman’s solo exhibition at Spectrum Gallery in New York City. Woodman’s canvases and prints during this period were characterized by fields of interlocking, repetitive shapes, which, as Robert Berlind later described: “may be seen as a reprise of the transition earlier in the century from a still-descriptive cubism to a “purer” non-referentiality. These paintings are equally in keeping with the contemporaneous interests of Op Art and made a crucial contribution to the Criss-Cross movement which flourished in the 70’s in Boulder and had an impact on the New York scene.”
L to R: 1-4: All from Betty Woodman’s first trip to Fiesole, near Florence, Italy, 1951-52 / Soggiorno degli Stranieri in Italia ("Foreigner's Stay in Italy”) for Betty Woodman, 1951. Woodman Family Foundation Archives.
Betty Woodman’s first trip to Fiesole, near Florence, Italy, 1951-52. Woodman Family Foundation Archives.
Betty Woodman's trip to Fiesole, Italy, 1951-52
Betty Woodman first traveled to Italy in 1951, on the suggestion of her friends Grace and John Tagliabue who invited her to join them there. She spent the year in Fiesole, renting a room on a hillside overlooking Florence and its Duomo and working in a pottery studio owned by painter Giorgio Ferrero and sculptor Lionello Fallacara.
L to R: 1-3: Processing George Woodman’s paper tiles in WFF archive, 2022 / 4-5: George Woodman’s paper tile installation, Denver Art Museum, 1980 / 6-7: George Woodman’s paper tile installation, unknown location, 1981. Woodman Family Foundation Archives.
Processing George Woodman’s paper tiles in WFF archive, 2022. Woodman Family Foundation Archives.
George Woodman's paper tiles, 1980-81
Although the Woodman Family Foundation archives are starting to take shape, there is still much more material to process before we are ready to open them up to scholars and researchers. Currently, we are processing George Woodman’s paper tiles and related plans, descriptions and documentation so that we can better understand this key aspect of his practice, which took his work with pattern off the canvas and into space and situation.
L to R: Betty Woodman working in her studio, Boulder, Colorado, c. 1960s / Betty Woodman’s functional ceramics notebook, c. 1966 / Betty Woodman with pots from kiln, Boulder, Colorado, c. 1960s. Woodman Family Foundation Archives.
Betty Woodman working in her studio, Boulder, Colorado, c. 1960s. Woodman Family Foundation Archives.
Betty Woodman's functional ceramics, 1960s
In the 1960s, Betty Woodman worked primarily in stoneware at her studio in Boulder, Colorado. At that time, she focused on producing functional ceramics, keeping careful notes about each piece.
L to R: “Canon," 1980, 66 x 66 in. Acrylic on canvas / 2-6: Spreads from the exhibition catalogue for “19 Artists—Emergent Americans,” The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York / "La Grande Fontaine du Printemps," 1980, 85 x 84 in. Acrylic on canvas / "Tessellation Sky,” 1975. 54 1/2 x 54 1/2 in. Acrylic on canvas. Collection The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. All works by George Woodman © Woodman Family Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
George Woodman. “Canon," 1980, 66 x 66 in. Acrylic on canvas © Woodman Family Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
George Woodman, "19 Artists—Emergent Americans," The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York, 1981
Forty-one years ago, "19 Artists—Emergent Americans" was presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York featuring seven paintings by George Woodman, among work by eighteen of his contemporaries including Barbara Kruger, Guy de Cointet, and Manny Farber. The exhibition reflected curator Peter Frank’s desire to present the artists’ work as a series of small retrospectives. “What I have sought to assemble at the Guggenheim Museum is the skilled and confident visual articulation of engrossing ideas by individuals who have not been sufficiently recognized for their accomplishment,” he wrote.
L to R: 1-5: George Woodman’s AAA Triptik map from Boston, MA to Albuquerque, NM, 1954. Woodman Family Foundation Archives | George Woodman. “Untitled,” 1955. 26 x 34 in. Oil on canvas © Woodman Family Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
George Woodman’s AAA Triptik map from Boston, MA to Albuquerque, NM, 1954. Woodman Family Foundation Archives
George Woodman's trip from Boston, Massachusetts to Albuquerque, New Mexico
In the summer of 1954, recent college graduate George Woodman set out from Boston towards Albuquerque, New Mexico. He had a degree in philosophy, and a desire to study painting in a more concentrated way than he had been able to do as an undergraduate student supplementing his Harvard education with art courses at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. He and Betty Woodman—who had been married just a year—followed this set of Triptik maps across the country, carefully tracking miles and expenses along the way until they arrived at the University of New Mexico.
L to R: Betty Woodman with Joyce Kozloff, 1981. Photo: Sylvia Plachy / 2-4: Betty Woodman, collaboration with Joyce Kozloff. “Cups," (3 of 12), 1980. 5 in. diameter / "Chrysanthemum Vase," 1980. 14 in / “Purple Toucan Pitcher,” 1980. 17 in. All glazed earthenware / 5-7: Betty Woodman, collaboration with Cynthia Carlson. Installation views, "An Interior Exchanged,” ArtisanSpace, Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, 1982. Dimensions variable. All paint and glazed ceramic.
Betty Woodman with Joyce Kozloff, 1981. Photo: Sylvia Plachy. Woodman Family Foundation Archives.
Betty Woodman, collaborations with Joyce Kozloff and Cynthia Carlson
In the early 1980s, as Betty Woodman moved into a New York City loft with her husband, George Woodman, and began to shift her functional practice towards ceramic sculpture, she became friends with many artists deeply involved with the Pattern and Decoration movement. She collaborated with two of them: Joyce Kozloff and Cynthia Carlson. With Kozloff, Woodman made ceramic forms—whether cups and saucers, pitchers or trays—which Kozloff then decorated with rich patterns inspired by Islamic tiles and motifs. The resulting works, which dissolve the line between craft and art, were shown in exhibitions at Tibor de Nagy Gallery and the Queens Museum in 1981.
Cover and pages from “The Further Adventures of Pinocchio,” published in 2004. Photographs by George Woodman. Poetry by Edwin Frank. Woodman Family Foundation Archives.
“The Further Adventures of Pinocchio,” published in 2004. Woodman Family Foundation Archives.
A collaborative poem and picture tale by George Woodman and Edwin Frank, "The Further Adventures of Pinocchio," 2004
Around 2003, George Woodman began incorporating a green wooden Pinocchio into the assemblages of toys, props and images he used to construct his photographs. Pinocchio is an iconic figure in Italian literature and culture, popularized by the classic children’s novel “The Adventures of Pinocchio,” written by Florentine author Carlo Collodi in the late 19th century. Woodman was interested in Pinocchio as the protagonist in his own picture stories.
L to R: Entrance to the Woodman family’s farmhouse adorned with a Pillow Pitcher by Betty atop a wall of George’s “sgraffito,” 2017 / View of the olive groves from Betty’s studio, 2004 / Betty cutting well-tended roses growing against the wall next to her studio, 2008 / Betty making flower arrangements with roses, dahlias and gerbera daisies from her garden, 2006 / Betty putting fresh flowers in a group of her “Vase and Stand” works, 1984 / Betty, a young family friend, and Francesca, c. late 1960s / Table set for dinner, 2016, photo by Brigid McCaffrey / Generous bowls and baskets full of figs, plums, peaches, grapes, and tomatoes, 2016 / Betty, Charlie and Francesca cooking together, c. early 1970s / George at his studio door, 2006 / A view out from the same door, 2008 / Francesca and Betty holding their bunnies, c. 1968 / Charlie on his motorino, c. late 1960s / Betty and friend with Betty’s triptych “June in Italy” (2001), c. 2001 / George with his sculpture, c. early 1970s / he Woodman family’s patio with potted geraniums and the olive grove in view, c. 1990s / Morning glories climbing George’s “sgrafitto” wall, c. 1990s. Woodman Family Foundation Archives.
L to R: Entrance to the Woodman family’s farmhouse adorned with a Pillow Pitcher by Betty atop a wall of George’s “sgraffito,” 2017. Woodman Family Foundation Archives.
AUGUST IN ANTELLA
Beginning in the summer of 1968, the Woodman Family spent every summer at their stone farmhouse in Antella, Italy, just outside of Florence. As children, Charlie and Francesca joined their parents and later visited on their own, soaking in Italian culture and influences. Betty and George made some of their most important artistic breakthroughs there—a place George once described as "an artist residency for two.” All summer long, their garden produced abundant food and flowers—the tomatoes were particularly good in August, happily shared with frequent visitors.