Francesca Woodman

Gagosian is pleased to present Lately I Find a Sliver of Mirror Is Simply to Slice an Eyelid, an exhibition of photographs by Francesca Woodman (1958–1981), opening on April 29. Focusing on her affinities with Surrealism, the exhibition features nearly fifty prints Woodman made during her lifetime, many of which have never previously been exhibited.

Picturing her own body as well as those of other models in natural landscapes and dilapidated interiors, Woodman used composition and mise-en-scène to convey a sense of mystery and theatricality. Destabilizing boundaries between bodies, objects, and settings, her photographs enact both assertions of self and themes of dissociation. They feature figures nude, clothed, or shrouded; exposed or partially hidden; and juxtaposed with everyday objects—eggs, gloves, masks, seashells, teacups, fruit, and fish—that hint at symbolic significance. These works reveal an artist who was creatively assured, playfully exploratory, and intrigued by the Surrealists’ transformative use of allegory, language, and ordinary items to express the marvelous and uncanny.

Woodman studied Dada and Surrealism at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and her notebooks contain many references to their ideas. Italy also played an important role in her development; she grew up spending summers in Tuscany with her parents, who were both American artists. Fluent in Italian and conversant with Italian art and culture, she lived in Rome in 1977 and 1978 while still enrolled at RISD. There, she frequented Libreria Maldoror, a bookstore and gallery specializing in Dada, Surrealist, and Futurist art and literature that held her first solo exhibition in Europe.