Overview

In the thirty years since her death, Francesca Woodman's work has retained an undeniable immediacy and continues to inspire a cult-like following of admirers. Woodman began photographing at the age of thirteen. By the time she enrolled at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1975, she was already an accomplished photographer with a remarkably mature and focused approach to her work. At the age of twenty-two, she committed suicide. Woodman might be merely a tragic footnote in the history of photography were it not for the startlingly compelling, complex and artistically resolved body of work she produced during her short career. Her oeuvre represents a remarkably rich and singular exploration of the human body in space and of the genre of self-portraiture in particular. Her practice assimilated and advanced aspects of feminist theory, Conceptualist practice, and performance art. Thus, a close re-examination of the maturation and reception of Woodman's artistic vision presents an important and timely opportunity to reassess the heady artistic moment during which she came of age. This catalogue, produced by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in conjunction with the first major American exhibition of the artists work in more than two decades, promises to be a landmark reconsideration of Woodman for the twenty-first century. It will paint a fuller picture of her oeuvre than has previously been available, spanning her earliest student experiments to her late, large-scale blueprint studies of caryatid-like figures for the massive Temple Project , and her experiments with fashion photography. The exhibition will bring to light many photographs that have never before been exhibited or published, and the book will focus on these and other vintage prints that the Woodman estate is making available for this exhibition and publication. These rare prints will allow audiences to appreciate Woodmans skill as a printer, and to grasp the importance of the final print to her artistic vision. Through all of these means, Francesca Woodman will examine why her photographs continue to be so profoundly affective many decades after their making.

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9781935202660

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Reviews

Even though they are quite small, about 5 by 5 inches, Woodman's haunting photographs have drawn admirers for decades.--Ted Loos The New York Times Franesca Woodman's black and white portraits have a way of getting under your skin.--Hilarie M Sheets W Magazine This is a comprehensive monograph of Francesca Woodman's photographic oeuvre, which as achieved cult status is the 30 years since the artist's brief yet prolific career ended when she took her life at age 22.--Jack Crager American Photo In an exceptionally informative catalog essay for the present exhibition, the art historian Julia Bryan-Wilson surveys the critical and art historical literature that has proliferated around Woodman's oeuvre.Francesca Woodman, the photographer who took her own life at 22 in 1981, is as close to a true saint as the putatively secular world of contemporary art can claim. The dreamy, formally playful and disarmingly erotic pictures Woodman made - mostly of herself partly unclothed or naked - project a self surrendering unreservedly to the spirit of art...it remains a poignant record of adolescent joy, fear, ambition and angst. It was not only her body that she exposed - she bared her soul too, and that is a rare and beautiful thing.--Ken Johnson The New York Times

In an exceptionally informative catalog essay for the present exhibition, the art historian Julia Bryan-Wilson surveys the critical and art historical literature that has proliferated around Woodman's oeuvre.<br/>Francesca Woodman, the photographer who took her own life at 22 in 1981, is as close to a true saint as the putatively secular world of contemporary art can claim. The dreamy, formally playful and disarmingly erotic pictures Woodman made - mostly of herself partly unclothed or naked - project a self surrendering unreservedly to the spirit of art...it remains a poignant record of adolescent joy, fear, ambition and angst. It was not only her body that she exposed - she bared her soul too, and that is a rare and beautiful thing.--Ken Johnson The New York Times

Franesca Woodman's black and white portraits have a way of getting under your skin.--Hilarie M Sheets W Magazine (11/01/2011)

This is a comprehensive monograph of Francesca Woodman's photographic oeuvre, which as achieved cult status is the 30 years since the artist's brief yet prolific career ended when she took her life at age 22.--Jack Crager -American Photo -

In an exceptionally informative catalog essay for the present exhibition, the art historian Julia Bryan-Wilson surveys the critical and art historical literature that has proliferated around Woodman's oeuvre.Francesca Woodman, the photographer who took her own life at 22 in 1981, is as close to a true saint as the putatively secular world of contemporary art can claim. The dreamy, formally playful and disarmingly erotic pictures Woodman made - mostly of herself partly unclothed or naked - project a self surrendering unreservedly to the spirit of art it remains a poignant record of adolescent joy, fear, ambition and angst. It was not only her body that she exposed - she bared her soul too, and that is a rare and beautiful thing.--Ken Johnson The New York Times (03/15/2012)

Franesca Woodman's black and white portraits have a way of getting under your skin.--Hilarie M Sheets W Magazine Even though they are quite small, about 5 by 5 inches, Woodman's haunting photographs have drawn admirers for decades.--Ted Loos The New York Times This is a comprehensive monograph of Francesca Woodman's photographic oeuvre, which as achieved cult status is the 30 years since the artist's brief yet prolific career ended when she took her life at age 22.--Jack Crager American Photo In an exceptionally informative catalog essay for the present exhibition, the art historian Julia Bryan-Wilson surveys the critical and art historical literature that has proliferated around Woodman's oeuvre. Francesca Woodman, the photographer who took her own life at 22 in 1981, is as close to a true saint as the putatively secular world of contemporary art can claim. The dreamy, formally playful and disarmingly erotic pictures Woodman made - mostly of herself partly unclothed or naked - project a self surrendering unreservedly to the spirit of art...it remains a poignant record of adolescent joy, fear, ambition and angst. It was not only her body that she exposed - she bared her soul too, and that is a rare and beautiful thing.--Ken Johnson The New York Times

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