Magdalena Abakanowicz
The Polish October and subsequent political and cultural thaw in 1956 marked a significant turning point in Abakanowicz's career.These works reflected the anonymity and confusion of the individual amidst the human mass, a theme influenced by her life under a Communist regime.Her father, Konstanty Abakanowicz, came from a Polonized Lipka Tatar family that traced its origins to Abaqa Khan, a 13th-century Mongol chieftain.[16]It was also during this time that the Polish People's Republic began to lift some of the heavy political pressures imposed by the Soviet Union, mainly due to the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953.Though her first exhibit received minimal critical notice, it helped advance her position within the Polish textile and fiber design movement and resulted in her inclusion into the first Biennale Internationale de le Tapisserie in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1962.[17] Over the next few years, she challenged the established idea that weaving could not be fine art, by using metal supports and pulling the pieces away from the walls thus making woven but increasingly sculptural work.Her use of "unexpected, often soft materials, arranged in modular or serial structures” in her Abakan series, places her within the Postminimalism art movement that began in 1966.[21] Abakanowicz stated that she sought the “total obliteration of the utilitarian function of tapestry” and demonstrated the capacity of fiber to produce forms that were soft yet structured and complex.The piece hangs on the wall and is made of five large recycled sisal panels in varying thickness and dyed in a burnt umber color.The designs were created by Sarah Burton and were met with high acclaim as they were presented alongside two Abakans from the collection of the Central Textile Museum in Łódź.She also began to once again work around organic structures, such as her Embryology series, which consisted of several dozen soft egg-like lumps varying in size.[25] These works have close connections to Abakanowicz's life living in a Communist regime which repressed individual creativity and intellect in favor of the collective interest.Her works from this period include Bronze Crowd (1990–91), shown in the garden of the Nasher Sculpture Center, and Puellae (1992), part of the National Gallery of Art's collection.Perhaps the experience of the crowd, waiting passively in line, but ready to trample, destroy or adore on command like a headless creature, became the core of my analysis.[26]In 2019, her work featuring humanoid sculptures entitled Caminando, from the private collection of Robin Williams, set a new record at auction for an artwork sold in Poland by fetching 8 million zlotys (ca.[30] One of Abakanowicz's most unusual works is titled War Games, which is a cycle of monumental structures made up of huge trunks of old trees, with their branches and bark removed.Abakanowicz's final round of work includes a project called Agora, which is a permanent installation located at the southern end of Chicago's Grant Park, next to the Roosevelt Road Metra station."[39] "Art will remain the most astonishing activity of mankind born out of struggle between wisdom and madness, between dream and reality in our mind.
FalentyPolandWarsawWarsaw Academy of Fine ArtsSculpturefiber artBirds of Knowledge of Good and EvilPostminimalismHerder PrizeLeonardo da Vinci World Award of Artssculptorfiber artisttextilesUniversity of Fine ArtsPoznańUniversity of California, Los AngelesNazi occupation of PolandAcademy of Fine Arts in WarsawSocialist RealismPolish OctoberConstructivismLausanne, Switzerlandpublic artworksChicagoMilwaukeePolish nobilityPolonizedLipka TatarAbaqa KhanMongol chieftainRussiaOctober RevolutionNazi Germanyinvaded and occupied PolandPolish resistanceGdańskcommunist doctrineWestern BlocModernismCommunist BlocGdyniascreen printingCytadela ParkgouacheswatercolorsPolish People's RepublicSoviet UnionJoseph StalinWładysław GomułkaVeniceMunichNew York CityLausanneSwitzerlandNasher Sculpture CenterMuseum of Modern ArtMildred ConstantineJack Lenor Larsenburnt umberAlexander McQueenParis Fashion WeekSarah BurtonCentral Textile MuseumresinsEuropos ParkasLithuaniabronzeNational Gallery of ArtAcademy of Fine Arts in ŁódźRobin WilliamszlotysartilleryAgora (sculpture)Chicago'sGrant ParkRoosevelt RoadstationChicago, IllinoisMichigan AvenueHirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian InstitutionMuseum of Modern Art, New YorkNational Gallery of Art, Washington, DCSão PauloBrazilVienna, AustriaJurzykowski PrizeSculpture CenterOrder of Polonia RestitutaPour le Mérite for Sciences and ArtsBerlinGermanyOrdre des Arts et des LettresOrder of Merit of the Italian RepublicAmerican Craft MuseumInternational Sculpture CenterGoogle DoodleRoyal College of ArtLondonEnglandRhode Island School of DesignProvidence, Rhode IslandAcademy of Arts, BerlinAmerican Academy of Arts and LettersSachsische Akademie der KunsteDresdenŁódźPratt InstituteMassachusetts College of ArtBoston, MassachusettsSchool of the Art Institute of ChicagoIllinoisPowązki Military CemeteryAbakanowiczList of Polish artistsNew York TimesWayback MachineReichardt, JasiaUniversity of California PressWorldCatYouTubeOto Bihalji-MerinJan KottStanisław LorentzLucijan Marija ŠkerjancTudor ArgheziManolis Hatzidakis