The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is hosting a comprehensive exhibition of Betty Woodman’s vibrant painted ceramics and mixed media work, including two series of bespoke pieces made especially for the galleries of the London institution. Now in her 86th year and still working full throttle, the human dynamo that is Woodman is an inspiration for us all. This message came over loud and clear at Tuesday’s lunch (2 February) to celebrate her show—which also inaugurates the ICA’s 70th birthday programme—with the director Gregor Muir extolling the octogenarian’s formidable energy to a packed crowd. Amongst them was the collector Fatima Maleki, the Frieze director Victoria Siddall and Victoria Miro—whose gallery represents the estate of the photographer Francesca Woodman, the artist’s late daughter.
There was also a note of encouragement to artists wondering how to get their work shown, with Muir disclosing that Betty’s show is testament to the effect of a good cold call, or “unsolicited submission” as he more delicately put it. Apparently the exhibition’s co-curator Vincenzo de Bellis—who is also the artistic director of Milan’s art fair, Miart—wrote in to the ICA with such a brilliant account of the oeuvre of Betty Woodman that, according to Muir, “we just had to do the show”— even though he did not then know the work. But he did then add that any aspirant ICA exhibitors would also benefit from a tutorial from Signor de Bellis in the fine art of proposal writing.
