FRANCESCA WOODMAN – ITALIAN WORKS
2018-08-20An exhibition of works made in Italy by the celebrated photographer Francesca Woodman (1958–1981), including examples from the Eel Series, created in Venice in 1978.
Born and raised in the United States, Francesca Woodman considered Italy her second home. She lived in Florence for a year as a child, attending second grade at a public school there, and spent her adolescent summers in Antella, Tuscany, where her parents purchased a farmhouse when the artist was 11 years-old. Shortly after this, at the age of 13, Woodman created her first self- portrait, and the genesis of her work until her death in 1981, aged just 22, is intrinsically linked to Italian art and culture.
This exhibition is comprised of Italian images, including those Woodman made in 1977 and 1978, during the year she spent in Rome at the Rhode Island School of Design’s European Honors programme. This year proved pivotal to her artistic development, and the works from this period emphasise the integral influence of Italian art and culture on her aesthetic vision. One of the key influences of Italian art on Woodman’s work was in her precise use of composition, which became more sophisticated during her time in Rome. She explored perspective and consciously used formal strategies learnt from her study of Florentine masters, particularly Giotto and Piero della Francesca, and classical sculpture.
Opposite – From Eel Series, Venice, Italy, 1978
Exhibition runs September 15th through to December 15th, 2018
Victoria Miro Venice
Il Capricorno
San Marco 1994
30124 Venice
Italy
