Travel

Matisse’s influence on the Woodman family is evident not only in the joie de vivre and cut-out forms of Betty Woodman’s ceramic sculptures, but also in the architectural sensibilities that inform both her and George Woodman’s work. George’s site-specific paper tile installations, in particular, invite comparison to Matisse’s Chapelle du Rosaire—not through direct lineage, but through a shared devotion to formal clarity, and the transformative potential of scale and repetition.

Betty Woodman, Francesca Woodman, and George Woodman also succumbed to the lure of beaches and seashores in their work, each artist reimagining the beachscape with a distinct sensibility and overlapping visual languages.

This summer, take in the fluid beauty of water as seen through the eyes of Betty Woodman, George Woodman, and Francesca Woodman.

In 1965, George Woodman visited Granada, Spain to see the Alhambra, the iconic monument to Islamic architecture where geometry, ornamentation and architecture harmoniously converge in a multitude of tiled and carved surfaces.

From the fall of 1965 through the summer of 1966, George Woodman spent the year living and working near Florence, Italy. It was in this year that the presence of pattern and attention to color that characterized his earlier paintings took a definitive turn.

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.

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 Woodmans’ travels also took them beyond the historical and cultural capitals of Europe. For Betty and George, this included trips to India, China, Japan, Korea, and more than one visit to Mexico—a country where they spent three months on their honeymoon in the summer of 1953.

The Woodmans spent another year together just outside of Florence from 1965-66. Betty had a Fulbright-Hays fellowship and George a faculty fellowship from the University of Colorado, while Charlie and Francesca attended the local public school.

The Woodman family made at least two trips to Greece together. The impact and influence of classical ruins, the architecture as well as the female form, can be seen in all of their work over many decades.

The Woodman family used their Italian home-base to see the sites around Europe, which meant that Francesca and Charlie began traveling with their parents from a young age.

As everyone heads out on vacation this August, we’re taking a look back at the Woodman family’s travels throughout the years with images from our archives.