Francesca Woodman - Photographs New York Wednesday, October 9, 2024 | Phillips
  • These three photographs come from the collection of artist Anita Thacher, and two are extensively inscribed to her by Woodman. This correspondence centers around the McDowell Colony where Anita Thacher was a Fellow, and later a board member. Woodman too, with support from Thacher, held a residency at McDowell in the summer of 1980. One of these photographs was sent by Woodman to Thacher when Woodman was in residence there and shows some of the portrait work she was executing at the time.  

     

    The other inscribed photograph was sent by Woodman to Thacher when Thacher was at McDowell. In it, she inquires about Thacher’s ‘3D idea,’ which may refer to Thacher’s early conceptualization of her signature film, Loose Corner, which would ultimately include a dazzling array of optical effects and was to include Woodman as a character.   

     

    The inscriptions read:

     

    ‘Friday, July 11, 1980

    Dear Anita,

    This girl [referring to the subject of the photographs] had one blue eye and one brown. Why, one would ask, did I photograph her in Black & White from far away? Why don’t i have a really good incisive portrait of my friend Anita? I want to try to keep working like I do up here when i return to the city. Even if i lie around reading for 4 or 5 hours there still remain 4 or 5 hours to work in. And i am despite all accomplishing quite a lot already. I had breakfast here with your friend Phebe. She seems interesting but very caught up in her own world up here. The sky is thundering and dark but there is still sun on the field outside my window. The birds fly across it making shadows like gulls over the water. Miss you. xxxxx & hugs, Francesca’

     

    ‘Anita -

    Thanx for letter. Enjoyed it very much but miss you. We are all eagerly waiting your return. I can’t wait to see your 3D idea. I’ve been wondering a lot about those 3D postcards that change when you tilt them. Could I do that to my photographs? My parents are coming to NY today and Benjamin left last Monday. So I am not accomplishing very much. My place is at an ugly state but I hope it will be better soon. I hope you will come to dinner on your return . . . . XXXX Francesca’

     

    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 by Johanna Fateman 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

    • Description

      View our Conditions of Sale.

    • Provenance

      Gift of the artist to Anita Thacher, 1980

    • 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. 

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FRANCESCA WOODMAN: WORKS FROM THE COLLECTION OF ANITA THACHER

310

Selected Images

1980
Two gelatin silver prints and one unique Polaroid print.
Varying sizes from 2 1/2 x 2 1/4 in. (6.4 x 5.7 cm) to 2 1/4 x 8 1/2 in. (5.7 x 21.6 cm)
Two signed and extensively inscribed to Anita Thacher in ink on the verso.

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Estimate
$10,000 - 15,000 

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Sarah Krueger
Head of Department, Photographs
skrueger@phillips.com

 

Vanessa Hallett
Worldwide Head of Photographs and Chairwoman, Americas
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Photographs

New York Auction 9 October 2024