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19/10/2006

Two exhibitions

The Museum of New Art (MONA), Pontiac

Francesca Woodman
Do I Still Exist If You Don't See Me?

The Museum of New Art (MONA) is proud to present the exhibition Francesca Woodman - Do I Still Exist If You Don't See Me? which will showcase 30 of Woodman's photographs from October 20 through December 6.

Francesca Woodman was, despite her short life, quite a remarkably influential and important artist. Without her ground-breaking work there would not have been a Cindy Sherman, a Sam Taylor-Wood, or a Tracey Emin.

Appearing in most of her photographs, her work concentrated mainly on her own body and her surroundings. And at times the two would seem to merge into one. Woodman often used long-term and double exposure so that she could actively participate in the film's image.

Brought up in a family of artists, Francesca Woodman (born in 1958 in Denver, Colorado) took an interest in photography from a very early age and was only thirteen when her first works were made.

As a student at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence between 1975 and 1979, she was accepted into the Honors Program which enabled her to spend a year at the school’s campus in the sumptuous Palazzo Cenci in Rome.

During that year (1977-78), Francesca frequented the Maldoror bookshop-gallery, which specialized in art books on Surrealism and Futurism. It was here that her first one-woman show was held. And where she also met the young generation of the Roman Trans-avantgarde.

After returning to the United States and completing her studies at Providence, Francesca Woodman moved to New York, where she embarked on more ambitious projects, making large blueprints on blue or brown paper as well as designing several books of her own photographs.

Some Disordered Interior Geometries, the only one of her books to be published in her lifetime, came out in January 1981. She took her life that same month jumping from her New York apartment at the age of 22. - A. G. Lopez.

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The face of Art
portraits by Clara Beckman

Throughout her life Clara Beckman, Britain's "lost" photographer, has traveled the globe immortalizing art figures of the early 20th century with her camera. In this exhibition, Beckman's lens is focused exclusively on these early innovators of modern art.

The Face of Art is the most extensive survey of Beckman’s portraiture ever mounted. The exhibition showcases 50 portraits of the 20th century’s greatest legends in art, a subject fundamental to Beckman's career and liaisons.

Beckman’s portraits are known for their dark clarity and simple texture. The artist preferred to photograph people in a banal environment, often against a blank wall, and tried to learn as little as possible about her sitter before the photo-session. “The first time you meet someone face-to-face is what I want my camera to capture," she explained. “That is the truest impression of all."

Beckman's lack of personable knowledge of and insensitivity toward her subjects combined with her self-taught technical skills allow us to intimately view some of the outstanding personalities of our era. The power of Beckman's portraits lies in the fact that they are memories of our existence. They reveal something of the nature of our age.

These timeless photographs include portraits of such artists as Bacon, Mondrian, Schiele, Basquiat, Schwitters, Leger, Munch, Malevich, Rodin, Claudel, Monet, Rivera, Kokoschka, Modigliani, Arp, Kahlo, Klee, and Magritte.

Clara Beckman is the grand-niece of German painter Max Beckermann. She was born outside London in 1978, and is currently serving a residency at the Museum of New Art.


Image: Francesca Woodman, Antella, Italy 77-78

Reception: October 20, Friday from 7p to 10p

MONA is located at 7 N. Saginaw, Pontiac, Michigan 48342
regular hours: 12-6pm Thursday through Saturday

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