Presenting Food, 1985, marked Betty Woodman’s second project with the Fabric Workshop and Museum and a farewell to her work as a functional potter. For this dinner-performance event, held at the museum’s New York City gallery space, Woodman responded to chef Daniel Mattroce’s menu with her signature ceramic dinnerware and serving dishes, accompanied by fabrics she designed and printed at FWM’s Philadelphia studios. Woodman later recounted: “These are my last functional pieces, ‘presented’ like the food in an almost operatic finale.”

Woodman began her work with the Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM)—and her 35-year friendship with its Founder and Artistic Director Marion “Kippy” Bolton Stroud—in 1980 as an artist-in-residence in the museum’s renowned and unique program. Working in FWM’s studios with its expert staff, Woodman was able to translate her ideas about pattern, color and form from ceramics to screen printed fabrics, resulting in hybrid works mixing ideas about materials, space, scale and function. This fruitful collaboration resulted in works such as Window (1980) and her ambitious architectural investigation Aspen Garden Room (1984). Presenting Food and a shift in Betty’s practice are considered in the exhibition Hard/Cover, opening Friday, April 9 at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia, and on view through September 26. For more information, click here.

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