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Lot Essay
Self-portraiture, perhaps even more so than photography, was undoubtedly Francesca Woodman’s foremost means of expression. Her preferred use of her own body, while certainly lending itself to a trove of art historical comparison, clearly intensifies the fierce sensibility behind much of her imagery. There is rarely a narrative, and most of her photographs remain resistant to any definitive explanation. The present lot is both extremely characteristic of her work in that it explores themes of the female body, seriality & repetition, Surrealism, and yet it is very different in feel from her more visceral performances. This has much to do with the barren nature of the image. The figure in the triptych is stripped completely bare – there is no splattered paint, mud, debris or chalky powder crudely applied to her body. Absent also from the frame are any of the props which we are well acquainted with in her pictures - sweet floral-patterned cloth, torn paper, shards of glass, mirrors, tape, clothespins, socks, etc. What remains is a singular nude female form holding the camera trigger, appearing rather/somewhat disengaged in the process happening around her and quite atypically for Woodman, fairly innocent.
While in Rome studying abroad, she immersed herself in a vibrant community of heady Italian artists – a veritable ‘minestrone’ of youthful artistic expression. It was an immensely significant experience for her; the art and architecture of the great city and the culture of its people had an indelible impact on her intellectual stimulation and substantially encouraged her growth as an artist. This is no more evident than in the realization of one of her final works, made in her post-RISD, post-Italy chapter in New York, which she called The Temple Project (1980). A monumental piece in scale, it is certainly the largest work she ever produced and considered by some as her pièce de résistance, currently residing in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The present lot seems most likely to have been made in conjunction with this elaborate ensemble, where she was beginning to re-imagine the caryatids from classical architecture using real female bodies as columns – ‘turning female form as functional structure into living flesh.’ A couple of large-format diazotypes - oversized prints made by Woodman utilizing the process behind architectural blueprints - printed from the same negatives as those used in the present lot help to further contextualize this study within her short oeuvre.
No prints of this triptych have appeared at auction previously, and very few vintage prints are known. One extant example, from the collection of the artist’s parents, Betty & George Woodman, appeared in the most recent retrospective organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2011-2012.
While in Rome studying abroad, she immersed herself in a vibrant community of heady Italian artists – a veritable ‘minestrone’ of youthful artistic expression. It was an immensely significant experience for her; the art and architecture of the great city and the culture of its people had an indelible impact on her intellectual stimulation and substantially encouraged her growth as an artist. This is no more evident than in the realization of one of her final works, made in her post-RISD, post-Italy chapter in New York, which she called The Temple Project (1980). A monumental piece in scale, it is certainly the largest work she ever produced and considered by some as her pièce de résistance, currently residing in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The present lot seems most likely to have been made in conjunction with this elaborate ensemble, where she was beginning to re-imagine the caryatids from classical architecture using real female bodies as columns – ‘turning female form as functional structure into living flesh.’ A couple of large-format diazotypes - oversized prints made by Woodman utilizing the process behind architectural blueprints - printed from the same negatives as those used in the present lot help to further contextualize this study within her short oeuvre.
No prints of this triptych have appeared at auction previously, and very few vintage prints are known. One extant example, from the collection of the artist’s parents, Betty & George Woodman, appeared in the most recent retrospective organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2011-2012.