Francesca Woodman: Works from the Sammlung Verbund - Tapa dura

How many books devoted to Francesca Woodman do we need? Francesca Woodman: Works from the Sammlung Verbund closely follows the organization by periods and places employed by the 2012 Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco) exhibition catalogue, and its plate section repeats much of that book, with the addition of some pictures by the artist as a teenager. One nude-self portrait shows Woodman entwined with the roots of a tree, eerily evoking Ana Mendieta crossed with Ophelia. But a decision to print the reproductions in four-colour black and white, instead of the finer-resolution black and white of teh earlier book, leaves the images here less crisp and lacking the spooky dark glamour captured by SF MOMA'S catalogue. Because the new volume reproduces mostly posthumour prints we dont get tho see the idiosyncratic and revealing captions Woodman wrote on some of her photos, like the scrawled title appearing under the cockeyed print of the iconic 'On being and angel #1, 1977.' And since she became an angel, and has subsequently become a saint, it makes a difference whether she touched these relics.--Christopher Lyon "Bookforum "

In the wake of her death, Woodman's photographs -- haunting black-and-white images, which examine her own body and ambivalence toward it -- have received much critical acclaim. Yet a new exhibit, currently on display at Vienna's Sammlung Verbund gallery, and corresponding book (out next month) argues against popular interpretations of Woodman's images that foreshadow her premature demise. In an introductory essay, the critic Elisabeth Bronfen disputes Peggy Phelan's suggestion that Woodman's obsession with blurred renditions of her own figure are "understood as a way to rehearse her own death," asserting instead: "By resolutely dedicating herself to the fragility of her own appearance as a photographic rendition, Woodman highlights the very inexorable inconsistency that ties the vitality of artistic work to the transience of life."--Erica Schwiegershausen "New York Magazine "

This volume--the most comprehensive monograph published on Francesca Woodman to date--considers her enigmatic photography in the light of the tradition of the tableau vivant and also explores for the first time her poetic use of props (mirror, gloves, wallpaper, etc.) as well as her unusual staging of space. Featuring 80 photographs and 20 previously unpublished works from the collection Sammlung Verbund in Vienna, it is the first publication ever to reproduce all of Woodman's photographs in their original sizes, authentically reconstructing her idiosyncratic technique of placing the image on the photographic paper. Woodman's stark, black-and-white photographs explore an intense curiosity and ambivalence toward the feminine self, but her often playful, surreal and symbolic gestures also demonstrate her ability to incorporate elements of humor into her otherwise sober iconography. This volume unifies all of these themes in her work under the broad concept of tableau vivant, showing how Woodman radically reimagined that tradition. It also includes the first detailed and illustrated biography of her life.
Francesca Woodman (1958-1981) was born into an artistic family and began to develop her interest and skill in photography during her early teenage years. She produced a distinct and original body of work in under a decade. Woodman committed suicide in 1981 at the age of 22. In the years following her death, Woodman's work has achieved widespread critical acclaim.