Francesca Woodman

Francesca Woodman

American photographer Francesca Woodman (1958-1981) is best known for black-and-white pictures of herself and of female models, which still draws new fans. [citation | title= Frieze Frame: Day 2 Sales | publisher=ARTINFO | year=2006 | date= October 12, 2006| url= http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/22744/frieze-frame-day-2-sales/| accessdate=2008-04-17 ] Many of her photographs show young women nude, blurred (due to movement and long exposure times), merging with their surroundings, or with their faces obscured. Years after her suicide at the age of 22, her photographic works became the subject of much attention, including many exhibitions and books.cite book | author=Gabhart, Ann | title=Francesca Woodman, photographic work | publisher=Wellesley, MA: Wellesley College Museum | year=1986 | id=ISBN | oclc=13474131] cite book | author=Lux, Herman | title=Photographische arbeiten = Photographic works | publisher=Zürich: Shedhalle | year=1992 | id=ISBN 3-907830-01-6 | oclc=27972302] cite book | author=Chandès, Hervé, ed. | title=Francesca Woodman | publisher=Paris: Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain; Zürich: Scalo | year=1998 | id=ISBN 3-931141-96-9 | oclc=40184932] cite book | author=Townsend, Chris | title=Francesca Woodman | publisher= London: Phaidon | year=2006 | id=ISBN 978-0-7148-4430-5 | oclc=76893694]

Life

Francesca Woodman was born April 3, 1958, in Denver, Colorado, to well-known artists George Woodman and Betty Woodman.MacMillan, Kyle. Haunting vision: Francesca Woodman explored the ephemeral realm between what is/isn't. "Denver Post", 2006 December 17.] Her older brother Charles later became an associate professor of electronic art. [ [http://www.shirley-jonesgallery.com/exhibit8.html Video works Charles Woodman, photographs Francesca Woodman, May 6 - June 16, 2005.] Notes for an exhibition at Shirley-Jones Gallery, Yellow Springs, Ohio. Accessed 2007-09-07.]

Woodman attended public school in Boulder, Colorado, between 1963 and 1971 except for second grade in Italy. She began high school in 1972 at the private Massachusetts boarding school Abbot Academy, where she began to develop her photographic skills. Abbot Academy merged with Phillips Academy in 1973; Woodman graduated from the public Boulder High School in 1975. Through 1975, she spent summers with her family in Italy.(p.154)

Beginning in 1975, Woodman attended the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in Providence, Rhode Island. She studied in Rome, Italy between 1977 and 1978 in an RISD honors program. As she spoke fluent Italian, she was able to befriend Italian intellectuals and artists.(pp.26-30,154) She went back to Rhode Island in late 1978 to graduate from RISD.(p.154)

Woodman moved to New York City in 1979. After spending summer 1979 in Stanwood, Washington, she returned to New York. There, "to make a career in photography" she sent portfolios of her work to fashion photographers, but "her solicitations did not lead anywhere."(p.155) In summer 1980 she was an artist-in-residence at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire.(p.155)

In late 1980 Woodman became depressed due to her work and to a broken relationship.Riding, Alan. Pictures, perhaps, of her despair: a young photographer's work may or may not hold clues to her suicide. "New York Times", 1998 May 17.] On January 19, 1981, she committed suicide by jumping out a loft window in New York.(p.155) An acquaintance wrote, "things had been bad, there had been therapy, things had gotten better, guard had been let down."

Works

Photographs, 1972-1980

Although Woodman used different cameras and film formats during her career, most of her photographs were taken with a Yashica camera-producing 2-1/4 by 2-1/4 inch square negatives-that her father had given her.(p.9) Woodman created at least 10,000 negatives which her parents now keep.Wood, Gaby. The lady vanishes. "The Observer", 1999 July 25.] Woodman's estate, which is represented by the Marian Goodman Gallery in New York, consists of over 800 prints of which "only around 120 images have ever been published or exhibited."(p.6)

Many of Woodman's images are untitled and are known only by a location and date. The table below contains information on some of Woodman's most famous photographs. For each photograph, the location, the date, the title, and a brief description are given (since multiple images may share the same location, date, and title, and a single image may be assigned multiple locations, dates, and titles). The columns on the right contain links to up to four reproductions of the photograph found on the Web, and page numbers of reproductions in four major books.

Videos, 1975-1978

At RISD, Woodman borrowed a video camera(p.27) and created videotapes related to her photographs in which she "methodically whitewashes her own naked body, for instance, or compares her torso to images of classical statuary." [http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/robinson/robinson12-12-05.asp Robinson, Walter. Maximum Miami.] "artnet" magazine, 2005 December 12.] Some of these videos were displayed at the Helsinki City Art Museum in Finland and the Marian Goodman Gallery in New York, New York in 2004 [ [http://mariangoodman.com/mg/artists/woodman/press_04.html Francesca Woodman, October 12 - November 13, 2004.] Marian Goodman Gallery press release.] ; the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation in Miami, Florida, in 2005; and the Tate Modern in London, England, in 2007-2008 [ [http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/CollectionDisplays?venueid=2&roomid=4215&page=2 Francesca Woodman (Room 8).] Tate Modern, 2007.] .

"Some Disordered Interior Geometries" (1981 book)

Woodman created a number of artists' books, such as "Portrait of a Reputation", "Quaderno dei Dettati e dei Temi" (Notebook of Dictations and Compositions), and "Angels, Calendar Notebook";Riches, Harriet. Disappearing Act: Francesca Woodman's "Portrait of a Reputation". "Oxford Art Journal" 2004;27(1):95-113.] however, the only artists' book containing Woodman's photographs that was published during her lifetime was "Some Disordered Interior Geometries."cite book | author=Woodman, Francesca | title=Some disordered interior geometries | publisher=Philadelphia: Synapse Press | year=1981 | oclc=11308833 ] Released in January 1981 shortly before Woodman's death, it is 24 pages in length and is based upon selected pages from an Italian geometry exercise book. On the pages, Woodman had attached 16 photographs and had added handwriting and white correction fluid. A reproduction of the book's original spreads shows purple-pink covers, pages which vary slightly in color, and traces of pink on several pages. Although the published version of the book has purple-pink covers, the interior pages are printed using only black, white, and shades of gray.

"Some Disordered Interior Geometries" has been described as "a three-way game that plays the text and illustrations for an introduction to Euclid against Woodman's own text and diagrams, as well as the 'geometry' of her formal compositions." An acquaintance of Woodman felt that it "was a very peculiar little book indeed," with "a strangely ironic distance between the soft intimacy of the bodies in the photographs and the angularity of the geometric rules that covered the pages." Davison, Peter. Girl, seeming to disappear. "Atlantic Monthly", 2000 May;285(5):108-111.] Another author wrote that it is "a distinctively bizarre book… a seemingly deranged miasma of mathematical formulae, photographs of herself and scrawled, snaking, handwritten notes." [http://www.newstatesman.com/199908230027.htm Henshall, John. Fatal attraction.] "New Statesman", 1999 August 23.]

The book is rare; of the 10 libraries in the Online Computer Library Center database that own the book and that have online catalogs showing the book, all hold the book in Special Collections or similar locations. [ [http://worldcat.org/ WorldCat] (and linked library catalogs). Accessed 2007-09-07.]

Posthumous recognition

Exhibitions and books

Woodman had only a few exhibitions during her life, some of which have been described as "exhibitions in alternative spaces in New York and Rome." [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0425/is_2_62/ai_103415706 "Francesca Woodman reconsidered: a conversation with George Baker, Ann Daly, Nancy Davenport, Laura Larson, and Margaret Sundell".] "Art Journal", 2003 Summer. Accessed 2007-09-07.] There were no known group or solo exhibitions of her work between 1981 and 1985, but numerous exhibitions each year since then. [http://mariangoodman.com/mg/artists/woodman/bio.htm Francesca Woodman.] Marian Goodman Gallery, c.2004. Accessed 2007-09-07.] [http://www.victoria-miro.com/usr/downloads/artists/biographies/woodman_cv.pdf Francesca Woodman.] Victoria Miro Gallery, c.2007. Accessed 2007-09-07.] Among her major traveling solo exhibitions were:

:* 1986-1988: "Francesca Woodman, photographic work". Traveled to Hunter College Art Gallery, New York, NY; Wellesley College Museum, Wellesley, MA; University of Colorado Fine Arts Gallery, Boulder, CO; UCI Fine Arts Gallery, University of California, Irvine, CA; and Krannet Art Museum, Champaign, IL.

:* 1992-1993: "Francesca Woodman, photographische arbeiten" (photographic works). Traveled to Shedhalle, Zürich, Switzerland; Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster, Germany; Kulturhuset, Stockholm, Sweden; Suomen Valokuvataiteen Museo SÄÄTIÖ, Helsinki, Finland; DAAD Galerie, Berlin, Germany; and Galleri F15 Alby, Moss, Norway.

:* 1998-2002: "Francesca Woodman". Traveled to Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris, France; Kunsthal, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Belém Cultural Center, Lisbon, Portugal; The Photographers' Gallery, London, United Kingdom; Centro Cultural TeclaSala, L'Hospitalet, Barcelona, Spain; Carla Sozzani Gallery, Milan, Italy; The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, Ireland; and PhotoEspana, Centro Cultural Conde Duque, Madrid, Spain.

Besides catalogues accompanying the aforementioned exhibitions, a monograph on Woodman was published in 2006.

The film "The Fancy"

In 2000 an experimental film "The Fancy" examined Woodman's life and work, "pos [ing] questions about biographical form, history and fantasy, female subjectivity, and issues of authorship and intellectual property."Subrin, Elisabeth. "The Fancy" (video). Chicago: Video Data Bank (distributor), 2000. [http://worldcat.org/oclc/45301667 OCLC 45301667.] ] [ [http://www.vdb.org/smackn.acgi$tapedetail?FANCY Video Data Bank page on "The Fancy".] Accessed 2007-09-07.] Reviewers noted that the video juxtaposes "formalism, biography, and psychoanalysis" [Greene, Rachel. Elisabeth Subrin, "The Fancy" (review). "Bomb" 2001 Fall;77:22.] and "hints at conspiracy, calling attention to the Woodman family's unwillingness to make the bulk of her body of photography available…."Armour, Nicole. Disappearing acts. "Film Comment" 2000 Nov/Dec;36(6):55-57.]

Popular opinion

In general, the public has been favorable towards Woodman's work. At the 1998 exhibition in Paris, many people had "strong reactions" to her "interesting" photographs. Many Web pages contain language similar to "Francesca Woodman has to be my favorite photographer ever." [ [http://www.slack.net/~kiki/woodman.html Lopez, Adriana Garriga. Francesca Woodman (1958-1981).] Accessed 2007-09-07.] A number of people have found Woodman's individual photos (for example "Self-portrait at 13"Moakley, Paul. Watch closely: Gigi Giannuzzi on Francesca Woodman. "Photo District News", 2003 August.] ) or her photography in general [http://gryphonsfeather.typepad.com/gryphons_feather_studio/2005/10/famous_five_tag.html Gryphon's Feather Studio blog entry, 2005 October 21.] Accessed 2007-09-07.] inspirational.

Influences

Among other factors, critics and historians have written that Woodman was influenced by the following literary genre, artistic movement, and photographers:
* Gothic fiction. She is reported to have identified with Victorian heroines.(pp.20-27)
* Surrealism.(p.19) For example, Woodman "followed the movement's tradition of not explaining work" and demonstrated a "desire to crack the code of appearances."(p.18)
* Man Ray (e.g., a series of his photographs of Meret Oppenheim, and his surrealist works).
* Duane Michals.(p.54) Woodman's and Michal's work share features such as blurring, angels, and handwriting in common.(pp.29-30)
* Deborah Turbeville.(pp.30-31,39-40) Woodman had "admired" Turbeville's work.(p.155)

References

For further reading

* Mellby, Julie. Francesca Woodman. In: cite book | author= Warren, Lynne, editor | title=Encyclopedia of twentieth-century photography | publisher=New York: Routledge | year=2006 | id=ISBN 978-1-57958-393-4 | oclc=60402034 Pages 1703-1705.
*
*
* Armstrong, Carol, "Francesca Woodman: A Ghost in the House of the "Woman Artist"." In: Carol Armstrong & Catherine de Zegher (eds.), "Women Artists at the Millennium". The MIT Press/ October Books, 2006. ISBN 0-262-01226-X

External links

*Aletti, Vince. [http://www.villagevoice.com/specials/vls/158/aletti.shtml Open book: Francesca Woodman.] "The Village Voice", 1998 October. Accessed 2007-09-07.
*Bush, Kate. [http://www.photonet.org.uk/index.php?plid=171 Francesca Woodman 6 Aug – 18 Sep 1999.] Notes for an exhibition at The Photographers' Gallery, London. Accessed 2007-09-07.
* [http://www.victoria-miro.com/artists/21,biog/ Francesca Woodman.] Victoria Miro Gallery, London. With notes on 2000 and 2007 exhibitions. Accessed 2007-09-07.
*Heenan, Andrew. [http://www.heenan.net/woodman/ A Francesca Woodman gallery.] 2007-08-02. Accessed 2007-09-07.
*LaFreniere, Nakazato. [http://www.hungryflower.com/leorem/woodman.html Francesca Woodman.] Hungry Flower photography, surrealists, books, c.2000. Accessed 2007-09-07.
*Romano, Gianni. [http://photoarts.com/journal/romano/woodman/ Francesca Woodman: on being an angel.] "PhotoArts Journal", October 1998. Accessed 2007-09-07.
*Rus, Eva. [http://www.49thparallel.bham.ac.uk/back/issue15/rus.htm Surrealism and self-representation in the photography of Francesca Woodman.] "49th Parallel: an Interdisciplinary Journal of North American Studies", Spring 2005. Accessed 2007-09-07.
*Turner, Fred. [http://72.166.46.24//archive/books/98/08/27/FRANCESCA_WOODMAN.html Body and soul: a photographer leaves behind the makings of a myth in a series of curious, often haunting, images.] "The Boston Phoenix", 1998-08-27. Accessed 2007-09-07.


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