Saturday, October 3, 2020

Artist of the day, October 3, 2020: Betty Woodman, an American ceramic artist (#1110)

Elizabeth "Betty" Woodman (Abrahams) (1930 – 2018) was born in Norwalk, Connecticut, to Minnie and Henry Abrahams. Her parents were progressive socialists and her mother promoted a feminist viewpoint. During seventh grade, stifled by the home economics courses young women were relegated to, she successfully fought her way into a wood shop class, wherein she learned to use a lathe. Betty started pottery classes at age 16 and immediately took to clay. She attended the School for American Craftsmen at Alfred University in New York from 1948 until 1950.

Woodman began her career in the 1950s as a production potter. Her career moved from functional pottery to fresh and exuberant art culminating in a retrospective show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2006, the first such retrospective for a living, female ceramicist, and a solo show at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London in 2016 with the title Theatre of the Domestic. She was a professor of art at the University of Colorado Boulder from 1978-1998. Following her daughter's death in 1981, Woodman's work subsequently shifted, evolving from functional pottery to the more abstract, thus transforming her career. She received an honorary doctorate from CU in 2007. Woodman convinced city of Boulder officials in the 1950s to fund the Pottery Lab, making it one of the first recreational pottery programs in the U.S. Her vision was to have students make pottery for fun but also develop their craft into a career. The Pottery Lab's creation resulted in around 100 kilns being constructed in the Boulder area.

Betty Woodman met George Woodman in a pottery class she was teaching in Boston in 1950. They married in 1953. George Woodman was a painter and photographer. He headed the University of Colorado Boulder art department. He died in March 2017. Betty and George Woodman had two children. Their daughter, Francesa Woodman, was an acclaimed photographer who took her life in 1981 at age 22. Their son, Charles Woodman, is an artist.


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Ms. Betty Woodman


 "Etruscan" Vase, 1966

 Early basket, Tang-style glaze, New York, 1970s

 Persimmon Pillow Pitcher, 1980

 Teacup and Saucer, 1980

 Two Vases, 1980s

 Two-handled vase with polka dots, New York, 1980s

 Vase, 1980

 Bowl, 1980s

 Italian Vase, 1982

 Pillow Pitcher, 1983

 Striped Napkin Holder, 1983

 Cretan, 1986

 Mewar Memories, 1988

 Kimono Vases: Evening, 1990

 Untitled sculpture (vase on wall bracket),  1990

 Balustrade Relief Vase #13, 1995

 House of the South, 1996

  The Portuguese in Japan, 2000

 Palm Leaf Pillow Pitcher, 2000

Aeolian Pyramid, 2001-06

 Table and Vases, 2006

 Tables and vases, 2006

 Balustrade Relief Vase 07-4, 2007

 Aztec Vase 8, 2008

 Roman Girls, 2008

 Winged Figure: cubist, 2009

 Grey Diptych, 2010

 Roman Fresco: Pleasures and Places, 2010

 Spring in Athens, 2011

 Polka Dot, 2012

 Amphora and Garden, 2012-13

  The Red Table, 2014

 Aztec Vase and Carpet #8, 2015

 The Summer House, 2015

Sculptural vegetable soup tureen and charger, USA, late 20th Century

 

 

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