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Lot Essay
“You cannot see me where I look at myself.”- Francesca Woodman
Francesca Woodman created a remarkably influential body of work of hauntingly reflective self-portraits, all before the age of 22. Raised in Boulder, Colorado by an artistic family, she started photographing at the age of 13, after her father gave her a camera. Her short, but productive, life came to an untimely end in 1981, when she committed suicide. Surrealism, metaphysics and magical realism are themes woven throughout her work. Often she would create such surrealistic effects by obscuring her, or her subject’s, face blurring the image with movement or having the figure interact with disintegrating interior architecture and juxtaposing them with found objects within the frame.
The image on offer here, Untitled, Providence, Rhode Island (Woman with Seashell), 1976- 1977 was taken during her time at Rhode Island School of Design from 1975-77. The subject, likely a friend or classmate and surrogate for the artist, stares off into the distance, her nudity obscured by a large piece of paper that appears to be tacked to the wall, confining her to the space, with an illegible script (helen...?) written across the front with a seashell at her feet. The seashell, which appears in other images by the artist, is considered a symbol of fertility and of the a safe journey between the physical and sprit world. This photograph has a performative aspect which questions the interaction of the female form and its relationship to its raw environment, while questioning the ideas of confinement and liberation.
Woodman often did not sign her work and this is an exquisite example of one of her rare, lifetime prints from her years as student, largely considered the peak of her output and exploration of her artistic vision. This photograph was originally gifted to a classmate, possibly the subject of this photograph. Woodman’s work can be found in renowned collections throughout the world including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; The National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, amongst others.
Francesca Woodman created a remarkably influential body of work of hauntingly reflective self-portraits, all before the age of 22. Raised in Boulder, Colorado by an artistic family, she started photographing at the age of 13, after her father gave her a camera. Her short, but productive, life came to an untimely end in 1981, when she committed suicide. Surrealism, metaphysics and magical realism are themes woven throughout her work. Often she would create such surrealistic effects by obscuring her, or her subject’s, face blurring the image with movement or having the figure interact with disintegrating interior architecture and juxtaposing them with found objects within the frame.
The image on offer here, Untitled, Providence, Rhode Island (Woman with Seashell), 1976- 1977 was taken during her time at Rhode Island School of Design from 1975-77. The subject, likely a friend or classmate and surrogate for the artist, stares off into the distance, her nudity obscured by a large piece of paper that appears to be tacked to the wall, confining her to the space, with an illegible script (helen...?) written across the front with a seashell at her feet. The seashell, which appears in other images by the artist, is considered a symbol of fertility and of the a safe journey between the physical and sprit world. This photograph has a performative aspect which questions the interaction of the female form and its relationship to its raw environment, while questioning the ideas of confinement and liberation.
Woodman often did not sign her work and this is an exquisite example of one of her rare, lifetime prints from her years as student, largely considered the peak of her output and exploration of her artistic vision. This photograph was originally gifted to a classmate, possibly the subject of this photograph. Woodman’s work can be found in renowned collections throughout the world including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; The National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, amongst others.