Betty Woodman at he
studio in AnteIla, Italy
The first living artist with a one-person clay show at the Met
exhibits at Birmingham's David Klein Gallery.
I
Suzanne Chessler
Contributing Writer
Left: Red Vases
and White Lines,
2011, glazed
W
hen Betty Woodman was
a high school student in
Massachusetts some 60 years
ago, her art teacher passed along pot-
tery skills learned during a summer at
Cranbrook.
Those experiences set the direction
for Woodman's artistic achievements,
including being the first living artist with
a one-person clay exhibit at New York's
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Woodman, in a way, recently has been
able to return the favor to Cranbrook. In
late April, when she opened a one-person
exhibit at the David Klein Gallery in
Birmingham, she met with Cranbrook stu-
dents and answered their questions about
her approach to ceramics.
The Woodman exhibit continues
through June 2.
"Whenever I have an art exhibit, there's
a chance to see the work separated from
myself:' says Woodman, 81, who divides
her time between studios in New York and
Italy.
"When I'm working and see it all every
day, I'm too familiar with it. I like that
first moment of walking into a gallery and
thinking that I'm entering what seems like
a really nice show."
The Birmingham show is all recent
work with various materials — sculptures
with ceramic pieces, canvas with clay
mounted on it and drawings.
Red Vases and White Lines exempli-
fies the artist's work with triptych vessels
having winged appendages. Anthony and
Cleopatra suggests space within archi-
tectural environments using ceramics on
wall-hung canvases. Bench 7 gives paint-
erly effects to patinated bronze in three
earthenware
Below: Bench 7,
2011, patinated
bronze
dimensions.
Many works offer vase on vase with
earthenware atop wood.
"Originally, I was interested not in being
an artist but in being a potter and mak-
ing functional pieces and in some way
serving society:' says Woodman, whose
work is part of the collection of the Detroit
Institute of Arts. "My interest in being an
artist evolved over the years.
"While clay interested me at 16, I'm
now still attached to clay but interested in
other materials and connecting them with
painting. The work goes back and forth,
and the drawings happen after I've done a
ceramic, wall piece or ceramic sculpture.
"I sort of use that piece as the subject
matter in a drawing so the drawing is not
a study for it; it's a study for it afterward.
From the drawing, I might decide to do a
piece which has the painted canvas with
ceramic elements. One thing leads to the
next."
Woodman, who studied art at the
School for American Craftsmen at Alfred
University in New York and taught at the
University of Colorado in Boulder, was
drawn to the vessel form because of her
early attention to pottery. She defines the
vessel as the main form made with clay.
Although it was very unusual for
women to pursue artistic careers when
Woodman was starting out, she was
encouraged by her parents, who were
Jewish but did not encourage religious
observance.
"I believe I got my professional strength
from my mother, who worked and was
interested in what she did;' says Woodman
(nee Elizabeth Abrahams), whose hus-
band, George, is not Jewish.
"She was an office manager for the
Associated Jewish Philanthropies in
Boston and was secretary for Abram
Sachar as he became president of Brandeis
University"
From her dad, a woodworking hobbyist,
Woodman believes she gained motivation
to pursue crafts.
"Art has been what it was all about in
the home where my husband and I raised
our children',' Woodman says. "There cer-
tainly wasn't pressure for our children to
become lawyers:'
Woodman's husband, George, is a
painter who has explored other art forms.
Their son, Charles, is a video artist, and
their late daughter, Francesca, was a pho-
tographer.
As Woodman keeps up with her own
artistry, she also is advancing public
interest in the artistry of her daughter,
who took her own life at age 22. The
Guggenheim Museum has mounted a ret-
rospective of the camera images.
"There recently have been exhibitions
of the work done by our family:' the three-
dimensional artist says. "It's interesting to
see the four of us represented together.
"We all have worked very differently,
yet there are connections. We were never
aware of them until we walked into a show
in Boston. It's hard to put your finger on
the connection, but you can see that the
work is related:'
Woodman and her husband have sepa-
rate studios in their New York loft.
"Maybe I should say our home is in our
New York studios:' she says. "In Italy, the
studio is just down the hill from the house.
"I probably work seven days a week. I
don't work in the evening. Dinner often is
at 9 p.m."
Breaks from work include running,
swimming, listening to music and enter-
taining.
"I'm a very disciplined person:'
Woodman says. "I think one has to be to
have a family and make work in a studio.
"It's been a long time since I had a show
in Michigan, and I've enjoyed meeting
curators, collectors and students. I also
enjoyed seeing the work of the graduating
students at Cranbrook." 0
The work of Betty Woodman will be
on exhibit through June 2 at the
David Klein Gallery,163 Townsend,
Birmingham. Hours are 11 a.m.-5:30
p.m. Monday-Saturday. (248) 433-
3700; www.dkgallery.com .
May 24 • 2012
105