Francesca Woodman

The ALBERTINA Museum presents the first museum exhibition of the American-Italian artist Francesca Woodman in Austria with works from the VERBUND COLLECTION. Since its foundation in 2004, the VERBUND COLLECTION has continuously acquired photographs by Woodman. With around 80 works, 20 of which are vintage, it has one of the most comprehensive collections of this extraordinary artist. The show displays a total of around 100 photographs.

Francesca Woodman (1958-1981) created her oeuvre in an 9-year creative phase from 1973 to 1981. Her work is characterized by a passionate self-presentation and the creative positioning of the female body in space, in the context of conceptual photography and performance. Most of the photographs have a small, square format, are black and white and were taken with a medium format camera. Like many artists of the feminist avant-garde, the artist often uses her body naked and in a surprisingly unconventional way, like a tool. In her unusual studio spaces, in the abandoned factory halls, she explores her curiosity about the female self.

The fleeting appearance of the female body is often interpreted as an aesthetic anticipation of her suicide at the age of 22. The exhibition, however, aims to interpret her work not from the end of her creative period, but from the beginning. Even in her early years, during her studies in the USA and Italy, the artist succeeded in staging the female body in space in a virtuoso and unique way. Her use of props such as mirrors, gloves, wallpaper, flour, shells, tiles or eels, as well as her skillful formal use of light and shadow, reveal her genius and mastery. Her subtle use of these props creates a poetic metaphor. Her photographs pose questions, suggest answers and reflect a specific ambivalence about what it means to be a woman.

Woodman's work only gained international recognition after her death in the early 1980s and is widely received today. The themes of her works revolve around femininity, vulnerability and the creative self-presentation of the female body. The artist left behind an impressive body of work that remains unique and visionary even four decades after her death.

Curator: Gabriele Schor, Founding Director of VERBUND COLLECTION, Vienna

The exhibition is on view from 4 April until 6 July 2025.