Research Catalog

Francesca Woodman : portrait of a reputation

Title

Francesca Woodman : portrait of a reputation / Nora Burnett Abrams, George Lange, Drew Sawyer.

Author

Abrams, Nora Burnett

Publication

New York, New York : Rizzoli Electa, 2019.
©2019

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person.	Text	Use in library	JQF 20-200	Schwarzman Building - Art & Architecture Room 300

Details

Additional Authors

Description

175 pages : illustrations (some color), portraits, facsimiles; 29 x 23 cm

Summary

"Francesca Woodman took her first photograph at the age of thirteen. From the time she was a teenager until her death at twenty-two, she produced a fascinating body of work exploring gender, representation, and the very nature of the photograph itself using her own body and those of her friends. Featuring approximately forty unique vintage prints, as well as notes, letters, postcards, and other ephemera from a pivotal moment in the artist's young career, this volume, accompanying an exhibition of the same name, details Woodman's creative and personal coming-of-age during the years 1975-79. George Lange, a close friend of Woodman's and her family's--and a photographer in his own right--introduced curator Nora Burnett Abrams to the cache of images and ephemera from his personal collection that are featured in the volume. Ranging from portraits in her studio/apartment in college to self-portraits in the bucolic Colorado landscape in which she was raised, these works, which have never been published before, capture Woodman's hallmark approach to art-making: enigmatic, rigorous, and poignant. In her essay about this extraordinary group of images and ephemera, Abrams argues that these photographs afford a rare opportunity to see an artist in formation--in them we witness the artist as she worked through an idea in many iterations to arrive at a desired result. Abrams also concludes that, importantly, this unique archive humanizes Woodman and allows the viewer to see her in the fullness of her life--laughing with friends and collaborators, being playful, and feeling joy. Drew Sawyer's essay considers the heady years of the mid-1970s and photography's increasingly important role in contemporary art discourse of the time, when serious approaches to the medium were just starting to take hold. Sawyer deftly catalogues the critical texts of the day that chronicled the move away from documentary or 'straight' photography in artistic circles emerging at the time, which privileged more personal and experimental image-making. He places Woodman in the context of her peers--such as Ana Mendieta--and the important feminist debates that were defining the era."
From the time she was a teenager until her death at twenty-two, Francesca Woodman produced a fascinating body of work exploring gender, representation, and the very nature of the photography itself using her own body and those of her friends. Featuring approximately forty unique vintage prints, as well as notes, letters, postcards, and other ephemera from a pivotal moment in the artist's young career, this volume details Woodman's creative and personal coming-of-age during the years 1975-1979. --

Subjects

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Exhibition catalogs.
Photographs.
Portraits.

Note

Published on the occasion of the exhibition held at MCA Denver, September 20, 2019-April 5, 2020.

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (page 172).

Language (note)

Text in English.

Contents

Introduction -- Photographs by Francesca Woodman -- Portrait of a reputation / Nora Burnett Abrams -- "Seething with ideas": Woodman and photography circa 1975 / Drew Sawyer -- Photographs by George Lange.

Call Number

JQF 20-200

ISBN

9780847864911
084786491X

OCLC

1089855151

Author

Abrams, Nora Burnett, author.

Title

Francesca Woodman : portrait of a reputation / Nora Burnett Abrams, George Lange, Drew Sawyer.

Publisher

New York, New York : Rizzoli Electa, 2019.

Copyright Date

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (page 172).

Event

"Francesca Woodman: Portrait of a Reputation" : September 20, 2019-April 5, 2020, the MCA Denver, Denver, Colorado, United States.

Language

Text in English.

Chronological Term

1900-1999

Place of Publication

United States New York (State) New York.

Added Author

Woodman, Francesca, 1958-1981. Photographs. Selections (2019)

Woodman, Francesca, 1958-1981, artist, photographer.

Lange, George (Photographer), author.

Sawyer, Drew, author.

Rizzoli editore, publisher.

Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver, host institution.

Research Call Number

JQF 20-200

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