This monumental self-portrait by Francesca Woodman comes from the collection of artist Anita Thacher, who was a friend and mentor to Woodman during her time in New York City from 1979 to 1981. Made in Providence, Rhode Island, in the late 1970s, this work predates the large figure studies Woodman executed later for Blueprint for a Temple (1980). With its straightforward presentation of the artist’s body against a quilted fabric background, its unconventional use of photographic materials, and the careful placement of one small but symbolically-rich prop – a bird nestled against her neck – this image shows Woodman working at her creative best. It is the largest lifetime gelatin silver print by the artist to appear at auction.
This photograph may have its origins in a series called Swan Song that Woodman executed in her final year at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1978. Like this self-portrait, these images also incorporate bird imagery and were rendered as large silver prints. Woodman showed these oversized prints, irregularly torn from rolls of photographic paper and innovatively installed, in her RISD thesis exhibition. Whether or not the image offered here was definitively part of, or parallel to, Swan Song, Woodman revisited it and several variants in 1980, printing them in the blue-tinted diazotype process (cf. Keller, Blessing, and Bryan-Wilson, p. 130). In the work offered here, Woodman leverages the gelatin silver print’s superior ability to depict form, volume, and detail.
This print was used by Woodman in an untitled black-and-white video she made in 1978 when she was given use of a video recorder by RISD for her coursework. The series of short videos she shot, issued posthumously on a limited-edition DVD, are explored in-depth by Jennifer Blessing (Keller, Blessing, and Bryan-Wilson, pp. 197-203). A small excerpt of the relevant video can also be seen in the 2011 documentary film, The Woodmans. In it, the camera first focuses on Woodman standing in the nude. Someone off-camera throws what appears to be a mix of water and plaster on her. The scene then switches to another view of Woodman nude, standing perfectly still. When the camera pulls back it becomes clear that what’s being recorded is a large photograph –the one offered here – held by Woodman. As the scene progresses, she wrestles with and embraces the print.
A series of stills from a video by Francesca Woodman, 1978 This photograph’s appearance in this video gives some insight into its unique physical characteristics, which derive from Woodman’s performative handling. It can be said that every one of Woodman’s self-portraits is a document of a performance for the camera. In this respect, the present photograph is a multi-layered document: of Woodman’s original performance in front of the still camera, and of her subsequent performance before the lens of the video camera. This photograph is a unique example of Woodman’s deeply intuitive approach to the medium and her sophisticated understanding of how scale can reinforce the impact of an image.
Anita Thacher, Untitled (Loose Corner, woman [Francesca Woodman] with self and dog), 1980; Courtesy of the Estate of Anita Thacher and Microscope Gallery, New York Phillips is honored to present, in Lots 305 through 310, a previously unknown trove of Francesca Woodman photographs from the collection of artist Anita Thacher (New York, 1936-2017). When Woodman moved to New York City in 1979 after graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design, she had the good fortune to rent a loft in a building on lower 2nd Avenue directly across the hallway from Thacher, an older and more established artist. This was a pivotal period in Woodman’s career when for the first time she was working outside an academic environment while learning to navigate New York City’s artworld. Thacher became a friend, mentor, and guide to the younger artist. The photographs in Thacher’s collection, many extensively inscribed to her by Woodman, are a tangible manifestation of their friendship and demonstrate the impact both artists had upon each other.
When Thacher began conceptualizing her groundbreaking 16mm film Loose Corner in 1980, she asked Woodman to perform in it. The first takes show Woodman on set, interacting with a dog (Thacher’s dog, George), a ball, and various other props. These silent scenes are notable for their interactive quality, with Woodman clearly reacting to Thacher’s off-camera direction, but also directing her own performance. However, these first scenes would never be seen as a few months later Woodman died. When Thacher was ready to return to the work, she began by reshooting the scenes with another actor assuming the role. The finished film — described in The New Yorker as ‘gaily desultory yet precisely constructed’ — features a remarkable array of optical effects that toys with viewers’ expectations and sense of scale. This wildly creative, playful spirit is visible in Thacher’s early takes of Woodman, as well as in a series of photographs shot concurrently on the original set of Loose Corner.
Anita Thacher, Untitled (Loose Corner, woman [Francesca Woodman] with dog and two balls, 1980; Courtesy of the Estate of Anita Thacher and Microscope Gallery, New York The warm and collaborative nature of their friendship is illustrated by Woodman’s correspondence, present on the versos of many of the photographs offered here, and by their mutual engagement in each other’s work. Just as Woodman had been a subject for Thacher’s camera, Thacher served as a model for Woodman, appearing in profile as one of several ‘possible modern caryatids’ in a study for Woodman’s monumental collage Blue Print for a Temple (see lot 307). Woodman attended the prestigious McDowell Artist Colony with Thacher’s support as a previous Fellow there. Shortly after Woodman’s death in 1981, when Thacher’s multi-projection 35mm slide installation Light House was exhibited at PS1 and the New York Film Festival at Alice Tully Hall, she dedicated it, ‘In memory of a friend, Francesca Woodman.’
Educated at the New School for Social Research and the New York Studio School, Anita Thacher maintained a decades-long artistic practice encompassing film, video, architectural and sculptural installation, painting, and photography. She was the recipient of numerous grants and awards, among them The National Endowment for the Arts (four grants), The New York State Council on the Arts (five grants), The Ford Foundation, The American Film Institute, The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, and The New York Women in Film and Television Preservation Fund. She was a McDowell Colony Fellow, and later a member of its board. Her work has been exhibited and collected by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Hirshhorn Museum, among others. Her moving-image work has been screened by The New York Film Festival, The Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Jeu De Paume (Paris), among many others. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is currently preserving Thacher’s works on film. Thacher was a significant proponent of public art, and her light installation Illuminated Station is permanently on view at the Greenport Station of the Long Island Railroad, now the East End Seaport Museum.
Anita Thacher in front of The Blues, © 2013 Geanna Merola Condition Report
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Provenance
Gift of the artist to Anita Thacher, circa 1980
Literature
Keller, Blessing, and Bryan-Wilson, Francesca Woodman, pp. 129-130 (variants)
Artist Biography
Francesca Woodman
American • 1958 - 1981
During her brief 22 years, Francesca Woodman created an extraordinary body of work, exploring gender, selfhood and the body in relation to its surroundings. Woodman often experimented with a slow shutter speed, which slightly blurred and distorted her body as it moved throughout the exposure, creating a haunting, almost ghost-like effect. Her ethereal presence draws our attention to traditional depictions of the body, forms of portraiture and self-portraiture, illuminating the desire for self-preservation against the passing of time.
FRANCESCA WOODMAN: WORKS FROM THE COLLECTION OF ANITA THACHER
306
Self Portrait (with bird)
1976-1978
Unique oversized gelatin silver print with applied paint and pigment.
49 3/4 x 35 1/2 in. (126.4 x 90.2 cm)
Overall 58 3/8 x 43 1/8 in. (148.3 x 109.5 cm)
Estimate
$150,000 - 250,000
Sarah Krueger
Head of Department, Photographs
skrueger@phillips.com
Vanessa Hallett
Worldwide Head of Photographs and Chairwoman, Americas
vhallett@phillips.com
Photographs
New York Auction 9 October 2024
325
This lot is no longer available.
354
This lot is no longer available.
