Betty Woodman

Sixty years ago, before they had traveled much of the world together, the Woodman family visited the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

As the Foundation’s registrar, I have the privilege of managing Betty, George, and Francesca Woodman’s artwork inventories. Though impossible to select a favorite object from such a prolific inventory, one of my favorite groups of works are Betty’s paintings on sketch paper.

We are pleased to share “Betty Woodman: Images of Function” by Layaan Roufai, who was our Library & Archives intern this summer through the Studio Institute Arts Intern program.

Happy 71st anniversary to Betty Woodman and George Woodman, who were married on this day in 1953.

As the solstice today marks the official beginning of summer, we are reminded of the Woodmans’ extensive travels around the world and their months immersed in global artistic influences.

Happy birthday to Betty Woodman—a garden enthusiast and artist who ingeniously experimented with her lifelong muse, the vase, and its multitude of sculptural possibilities.

Around 1952, a young George Woodman in Cambridge, Massachusetts, penned his devotion on a USPS customs form: “Little box with littler box inside” and “1 engagement ring of Navajo silver with turquoises.” The precious 4-ounce package was destined for the hands of Elizabeth Abrahams (later to be known as Betty Woodman) across the ocean in Fiesole, Italy, where she had been living and working for the past year.

Betty Woodman’s numerous glazes, paints, and the varied configurations of brushes—sometimes mixed or assembled by the artist herself to achieve desired color swatches, brushy marks, and parallel stripes—reflect her continuously innovative work with ceramic forms.

Over the course of a year from 1965-66, the Woodman family lived and worked in Italy, just outside of Florence. During that time, Betty and George became close friends with the artists and then-couple Nancy Graves and Richard Serra, who, like Betty, was there for the year on a Fulbright-Hays scholarship. They spent many hours together around the table, sharing meals, funny hats and conversations about art.

The Woodman family spent many summer days and evenings dining al fresco in Italy with family and friends throughout the years. Most of these snapshots were taken by George, who often had his camera in hand and documented their family life.

For over fifty years, the Woodman family has enjoyed many meals and conversations in the breakfast nook at their farmhouse in Antella, Italy. Built in a circular space that had originally housed a brick oven, the nook overlooks the hills of Tuscany and spectacular sunsets.

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.