Francesca Woodman
The pairing of these two artists work at Tate Liverpool provided some interesting comparisons to be made between the works and artist's intent. Firstly, having seen and admired Woodman's work before I was concerned that the small scale of the images (mostly 5x5 inches) would be overpowered by Schiele's paintings. Thankfully the works were separated by sections of wall space and Woodman's photographs were mounted with large white borders that doubled their size. I thought the exhibition was hung extremely well and the works flowed through the gallery space divided into chronological sections that showed the phases of both artists development.
Woodman is an early photographic inspiration for me and her interest in props and experimental use of space has influenced my own work. This exhibition is far superior to an earlier curated exhibit in London a few years ago which used the daft concept of the 'zig-zag' as a conceptual device to curate her show. In Woodman's work she explores her own gender identity and body; her use of cellotape to bind her legs, mirrors, and the contorting of her body into a display case shows an extensive visual repertoire in which to examine the society in which she found herself in the mid to late 1970s. Woodman is extremely visually inventive.
Schiele's painting is fairly new to me not having taken much notice of the artist before. A figurative painter of the early twentieth century Schiele was influenced by Gustav Klimt but soon developed his own style. Schiele's work appears to mostly explore female sexuality and some of the images are quite explicit. They appear to sit within the artistic style and timeframe of Gustav Klimt and similar painters that were openly exploring the nature of sexual desire. I found many of the works expressive and well made.
A number of comparisons can be made between the two artist's. The both died young; Schiele of Spanish Flu in 1918 and Woodman of suicide in 1981. Their artistic careers were cut short leaving behind a body of work to be speculated on, manipulated and curated free of input from the artist (thinking about those zig-zags). They both made extensive studies of the human body. Schiele painted women, often in explicit poses, and this can be problematic and viewed as misogynistic as the painter is working through the lens of the male gaze and woman as sexual object. There is a power play between the artist and sitter, male and female, that is difficult to overcome. Woodman explores her own gender and through the use of her own body circumvents many of the negative aspects that Schiele can be accused of. Woodman's exploration of sexuality is more complex and has more depth than in the Schiele paintings and shows a young woman asking questions about where her place is in the world and the potential possibilities open to her. Both artist's work has a fluidity to it with Woodman's time-lapse work providing ghost-like spectres as she moves through the frame or stands perfectly still, her hand making blurred gestures; The movement in Schiele's work is in the free paint strokes often belied by the languid poses.
Egon Schiele
This exhibition was thought provoking for me and confirmed my respect for Woodman's work. I enjoyed looking at the Schiele paintings although some of the most explicit paintings seemed to me to overly objectify women from a male point of view. I suppose it is not so much the paintings themselves but the intent with which they were made. Would a woman photographer making the same work be considered acceptable? The intent could be considered a critique of the politics surrounding the representation of female nudity and have quite different connotations. Female nudity is such a tricky subject matter in the light of unequal treatment of women in a male dominated patriarchy. It is a question that is hard to have any clear answer on.
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