VIENNA.- The ALBERTINA Museum presents the first museum exhibition of the American artist Francesca Woodman in Austria with works from the VERBUND COLLECTION. Since its foundation in 2004, the VERBUND COLLECTION has continuously acquired photographs by Woodman. All 82 works on display in the exhibition, including 20 photographs developed by the artist herself, are from the VERBUND COLLECTION. This means that the collection – apart from the estate – has the most comprehensive holdings of this extraordinary artist.
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Francesca Woodman (3 April 1958 – 19 January 1981) created her oeuvre in a nine-year creative phase from 1972 to 1981. Her work is characterized by a passionate self-presentation and the creative positioning of the female body in space, in the context of conceptual photography and performance. Most of the photographs have a small, square format, are black and white and were taken with a medium format camera. Like many artists of the feminist avant-garde, the artist often uses her body naked and in a surprisingly unconventional way, like a tool. In her unusual studio spaces, in the abandoned factory halls, she explores her curiosity about the female self.
“With the first comprehensive Francesca Woodman exhibition in Austria, the ALBERTINA Museum is paying tribute to one of the most influential female photographers of the 20th century. In just nine years, Woodman created a groundbreaking body of work: her haunting depictions make her not only the central motif, but also the medium of her art. Through the targeted use of mirrors, she expands the view of herself and opens up new, mysterious perspectives. Her fascinating black and white photographs and the playful interplay of light and shadow impressively negotiate the transience and fragility of life.
The exhibition underlines the importance of the ALBERTINA Museum as one of the leading exhibition venues for photography, and at the same time it is part of a clear focus on female artists – with a total of six solo shows this year. My special thanks go to the VERBUND COLLECTION, whose outstanding
Woodman collection has made this exhibition possible and whose ongoing commitment to women artists is invaluable,” says Ralph Gleis, Director General of the ALBERTINA Museum.
VERBUND CEO Michael Strugl explains: “In our company, we focus on gender balance, equality and diversity. This attitude is also reflected in the orientation of the VERBUND COLLECTION. The cooperation between the ALBERTINA Museum and VERBUND makes it possible to present our works to a wide audience in a renowned Viennese museum. That makes me very happy!”
Gabriele Schor, founding director of the VERBUND COLLECTION and curator of the exhibition, explains: “The fleeting appearance of the female body is sometimes interpreted as an aesthetic anticipation of her suicide at the age of 22. The exhibition, on the other hand, aims to interpret her work not from the end, but from the beginning of her creative period. Even in her early years, during her studies in the USA and Italy, the artist succeeded in staging the female body in space in a virtuoso and unique way. Her use of props such as mirrors, gloves, wallpaper, flour, shells, tiles or eels, as well as her skillful formal use of light and shadow, reveal her genius and mastery. Her subtle use of these props creates a poetic metaphor. Her photographs pose questions, suggest answers and reflect a specific ambivalence about what it means to be a woman.”
Woodman's work only gained international recognition after her death and is widely received today. The themes of her works revolve around the creative self-presentation of the female body. The artist left behind an impressive body of work that remains unique and visionary even four decades after her death. The exhibition also includes two of her own artist's books.
Francesca Woodman grew up bilingually in a family of artists in the USA and Italy. Her parents were passionate about Italy, gave their daughter her Italian first name and the family spent almost every summer in their old farmhouse in Antella, Tuscany. Through visits to museums, Woodman became familiar with art history and modern art at an early age. Her first artistic photograph Self Portrait at Thirteen (1972) was taken at a young age and three years later she had her first solo exhibition in Andover, Massachusetts.
Between 1975 and 1979, she attended the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in Providence, where, unusually early on, she rented her own studio, a space in a former textile factory in Providence. From 1977 to 1978, she spent a year studying abroad in Rome, where she photographed in an abandoned pasta factory, among other places, and had her first European solo exhibition in 1978 in the Libreria Maldoror bookstore in Rome. The dilapidated and outdated aesthetics of the rooms seem to correspond with Francesca Woodman's preference for the Victorian era.
From 1979, she lived and worked in New York, where she earned her living as a secretary, nude model and photography assistant. Some of her photographs also bear witness to her attempts at fashion photography. On January 19, 1981, she took her own life at the age of 22. Woodman leaves behind an extraordinary body of work consisting of photographs, artist's books and drawings.
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