Betty Woodman

Betty Woodman (born May 14, 1930 in Norwalk, Connecticut) is internationally recognized as one of today’s most important contemporary ceramic artists.^[1] She began her professional career in the 1950s as a production potter interested in creating objects to enhance everyday life. Since then, the vase has become the subject and muse of Woodman's art. In deconstructing and reconstructing its form, she has created an exuberant and complex body of work reflecting a wide range of influences and traditions and an inventive use of color. As recently described by American Ceramics magazine, [2] "Betty Woodman’s work evidences a lust for life. Referencing an array of styles and cultures on one object, Woodman challenges her medium and the stigma of the vessel form with a marriage of painting, sculpture and art history."

Woodman is currently represented by Salon 94 gallery and lives and works in New York City and Antella, Italy. She is married to the artist George Woodman, and is mother of two children, Charles Woodman (born in 1955,) a videographer, and Francesca Woodman (1958–1981), who was an influential photographer.

Education and teaching

Woodman studied at The School for American Craftsmen at Alfred University in Alfred, New York from 1948 to 1950. In 1975, she was a Visiting Artist at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, and in 1977 she was an Associate Professor at Scripps College in Claremont, California. She taught in the Fine Arts Department at the University of Colorado Boulder from 1978 to 1998, and was named Professor Emeritus in 1998.

Awards and honors

Woodman has received many prestigious awards and honors in the field, including the following:^[2]

• National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships (1980,1986)
• Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship at the Bellagio Study Center, Bellagio, Italy (1995)
• Fulbright-Hays Scholarship to Florence Italy (1996)
• Doctor of Fine Arts Honors Causa from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (2006)
• Doctor of Human Letters Honoris Causa from the University of Colorado Boulder (2007)
• Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design (2009)
• Gold Medal for Consummate Craftmanship, American Craft Council Awards (2014)^[3]

Exhibitions

Woodman has exhibited at museums and galleries of note in the United State and internationally, including the following:

• 'Theaters of Betty Woodman' at the Museu Nacional do Azulejo, Lisbon (2005) and the Musée Ariana, Geneva (2006)
• 'The Art of Betty Woodman' a retrospective exhibition of her career at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2006)^[4]
• 'Betty Woodman: Roman Fresco / Pleasures and Places' first exhibited at the American Academy in Rome (2010)
• 'Illusions of Domesticity' at the David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles, CA (2015)^[5]
• 'Betty Woodman: Theatre of the Domestic' at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, 2016^[6]

Collections

Woodman’s work is part of more than fifty public collections, including the following:

• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston^[7]
• Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
• Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York^[8]
• Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris
• Museum of Modern Art, New York^[9]
• Whitney Museum of American Art, New York^[10]
• National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.^[11]
• Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA^[12]
• Victoria and Albert Museum, London^[13]

Other contributions

Many critics and writers have recognized the value of Woodman’s contribution to the dialogue between ceramics and the arts. In the 1991 documentary Thinking Out Loud, Woodman demonstrates her techniques and ideas in conversation with curator and painter John Perreault. In 2006 the monograph, Betty Woodman,^[14] was produced in conjunction with her retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and it includes curatorial essays by Janet Koplos, Barry Schwabsky, and Arthur Danto.

References

1. "Betty Woodman biography presented by". www.franklloyd.com. Retrieved 2016-05-02.
2. Familiar-Studio.com, Familiar,. "Betty Woodman - Salon 94". Salon94. Retrieved 2016-05-02.
3. "Masters: Betty Woodman | American Craft Council". craftcouncil.org. Retrieved 2016-05-02.
4. "The Art of Betty Woodman | The Metropolitan Museum of Art". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved 2016-05-02.
5. "David Kordansky Gallery". davidkordanskygallery.com. Retrieved 2016-05-02.
6. "Betty Woodman: Theatre of the Domestic | Institute of Contemporary Arts". www.ica.org.uk. Retrieved 2016-05-02.
7. "Pillow Pitcher". Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Retrieved 2016-05-02.
8. "Betty Woodman | Deco Lake Shore | The Met". The Metropolitan Museum of Art, i.e. The Met Museum. Retrieved 2016-05-02.
9. "Betty Woodman | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2016-05-02.
10. "Whitney Museum of American Art: Betty Woodman". collection.whitney.org. Retrieved 2016-05-02.
11. "Artist Info". www.nga.gov. Retrieved 2016-05-02.
12. Art, Philadelphia Museum of. "Philadelphia Museum of Art - Collections Object : Diptych Vases, Orpheus". www.philamuseum.org. Retrieved 2016-05-02.
13. "Pillow Vase | Woodman, Betty | V&A Search the Collections". collections.vam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2016-05-02.
14. Woodman, Betty (2006-01-01). Betty Woodman. Monacelli Press. ISBN 9781580931687.

External links

• Betty Woodman at 15th Street Gallery
• Betty Woodman at Galerie Francesca Pia
• Betty Woodman at Salon 94
• Betty Woodman at the American Museum of Ceramic Art