Simply put, Francesca Woodman was wise beyond her years. Innately a surrealist before being influenced by surrealism, she understood how to be analytical and critical with her body. She paid homage to Greek mythology and antiquity, as well. A mature artist for her age, she left a legacy of work honorable for a retrospective. Astonishingly, the amount of work she left behind was primarily produced within a decade’s time. Photography that is vast, experimental and sophisticated; her body was a tool and her subject was herself.

Francesca Woodman, Polka Dots, 1976. Providence, Rhode Island. George and Betty Woodman. 

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York showcased from March 16 – June 13, 2012 the career or Francesca Woodman. I was fortunate enough to visit the exhibition a couple weeks before closing. Curated by Corey Keller, this retrospective is the first major American exhibition of Woodman, and it hosts 176 photographs and a handful of videos that study her intimate and complex self-portraiture. The exhibition originated from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA).

Francesca Woodman. Untitled. Providence, Rhode Island. 1976. George and Betty Woodman.

The exhibition charts Woodman’s career documenting her work as a student at Rhode Island School of Design (RSID), her days in Italy studying abroad, and to her time at the MacDowell Colony. Her career survey ends while she is New York attempting to establish herself as fashion photographer. In 1981, at the age of 22, she died by suicide.

A small part of the exhibition is Woodman’s six short videos; they are essential to the retrospective as meaningful companions to her still images. Student projects, she produced them while taking a video art course at RSID. After only knowing Woodman contained in still image, seeing her in moving form provided a further look into her rawness. The videos bestowed deeper insight into her dream-like process as an artist. Viewing them added a new way of watching and connecting with her.

Francesca Woodman. Selected Video Works. Providence, Rhode Island. 1976-78. George and Betty Woodman.

Francesca Woodman. Untitled. Rome. 1977-78. George and Betty Woodman.

Quintessential to Woodman’s work is the visceral energy that bellows in each of her images. As a photographer, Woodman selected her medium and aesthetic, and possessed it. The Guggenheim exhibition, in all of its comprehensive detail, captures her bold nature - one that explored self-representation and the body through an exercise integrating the boundaries between subjectivity and objectivity.

Francesca Woodman. Untitled. Providence, Rhode Island. 1976. George and Betty Woodman.

Significantly, most of her images are nude. I notice this changes as her art progresses and her projects begin to conceptualize differently. Her bare body though, a recurring theme as it is, represents a simplicity that utilizes a quiet introspection rather than pure exhibitionism. It takes skill to represent the body nude in way that constructively deconstructs objectivity.

Francesca Woodman. Untitled. Providence, Rhode Island. 1976. George and Betty Woodman.

Being nude appeared to be an avenue to investigate what is and isn’t for Woodman. But this goes for all of her images. Work that appears to be non-narrative, actually speaks to a structured automatism that connects each of her projects to her overall nature as an artist. In psychoanalytic terms, she appeared to consciously utilize her unconsciousness to shape and form her relationship with her own body, and the spaces she worked within in.

Francesca Woodman. Untitled. 1979-80. New York. George and Betty Woodman.

Francesca Woodman. Untitled. 1980. MacDowell Colony, New Hampshire. George and Betty Woodman. 

As I reflect on this exhibition, I am impressed by Woodman’s growth and experimentalism as an artist. While examining her small-scale photographs, large-scale senior project, large and effectual “blue print” diazotypes, and her artist books, I walked away feeling Woodman tapped into creativity and authenticity as a way of life. Inspiring as her work is, bleakness resonates, too. 

Francesca Woodman. Caryatid. 1980. New York. Diazotype. George and Betty Woodman.

Francesca Woodman and Dawn Kasper are two artists that utilize rich and particular perspectives through the use of body, space, and performance. Their art convey deeper meanings within self and subjectivity.

Kasper will be performing at the Whitney Biennial 2012 during the same time Woodman’s photography will be displayed at the Guggenheim. I find this an opportunity, and I plan to view both events in-person, as it will heighten my understandings of their work and provide valuable insights that will benefit my Master’s thesis project.

120 of her photographs of Woodman’s, along with her videos and artist books will be displayed in retrospect at the Guggenheim in conjunct with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. This exhibition is the first comprehensive collection of her work, with newly released pieces, in the United States. By large, the intensity of this exhibit will thread many of her artistic intentions and visions into one space, where her conceptual pieces will be explored within a perspective that represents her work in historical context and contemporary relevancy.

Viewing Woodman’s work in-person will permit me the chance to examine more closely the validity of her favorite subject: herself. It is necessary to view these works in person so that my interaction with her work is authentic to my own thoughts and experience. I want my writing on Woodman to be inspired by what I feel and see when viewing her work in-person. I plan to view this exhibit twice on two separate occasions so that I fully engage myself with her work.

Dawn Kasper is a performance artist of self-portraits, and relatively unknown and unexplored by scholars, though her work has not gone unnoticed. The meaning of self is neither fixed nor singular, and Kasper’s work, whether in photographic form or in live-art, are intuitive and uncanny, where her body is a vessel of meaning in identity. Her current project at the Whitney is multidimensional within self-portraiture. She has taken up gallery space and re-staged her art studio; a place she hasn’t been able to afford on her own since 2008. It is not a closed space, either, rather it is an ongoing experiment called THIS COULD BE SOMETHING IF I LET IT. Biennial patrons can engage and interact with her and her self-identified space while she is completing projects. She opens what is often a private space for artists, public. 

I intend to participate on a day where she is scheduled to perform. Viewing Kasper’s performance will demonstrate the immediacy of her project(s), as well as witness how Kasper connects self-exploration, persona, and the body to her larger studio project and her individual performance pieces. Viewing her perform, will provide me an understanding behind her project(s), and how each element self-represents her. I will also access the experience of her visceral work, as it is an event that can only be experienced once.