Francesca Woodman's retrospective from SFMOMA, is now showing at the Guggenheim Museum and is the first comprehensive survey of the artist’s brief but extraordinary career to be seen in North America. More than thirty years after her death, the moment is ripe for a historical reconsideration of her work and its reception. Woodman’s oeuvre represents a remarkably rich and singular exploration of the human body in space and of the genre of self-portraiture in particular...

Francesca Woodman's retrospective from SFMOMA, is now showing at the Guggenheim Museum and is the first comprehensive survey of the artist’s brief but extraordinary career to be seen in North America. More than thirty years after her death, the moment is ripe for a historical reconsideration of her work and its reception. Woodman’s oeuvre represents a remarkably rich and singular exploration of the human body in space and of the genre of self-portraiture in particular...

Francesca Woodman was a young American photographer who built an amazingly rich and complex body of work in her mere 22 years on earth. Committing suicide in 1981, her photographs remain startlingly modern and immediate, exploring femininity, female subjectivity, and a deep personal vision. A retrospective of her work is now on display at SF MOMA until February 20, 2012.

No sparkling sunrises in sight, the first Francesca Woodman retrospective had to unfold in the Fall when the haunting is subtle but pervasive. Slowly crumbling walls like falling  leaves are not swept away, but  form the soil from which many of her subjects take root Swathed in sepia, the black and white prints – save the large scale blueprints at the end of the exhibit - are surprisingly small, inviting  inspection and introspection.