For Magdalena Abakanowicz, the Polish sculptor known for vast,
hanging sculptures made of organic matter, the inspiration for her life’s
work lay in her childhood.
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"I must have been inspired" Joseph Conrad Magdalena Abakanowicz – Sculptor of brooding forms
1. "I must have been inspired" JosephConrad
Magdalena Abakanowicz –
Sculptor of brooding forms
CULTURE LIFE
MATTHEW FAHRENHOLZ JUNE 20, 2023
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Magdalena Abakanowicz next to her sculptures.
Photo by Tomasz Gzell
For Magdalena Abakanowicz, the Polish sculptor known for vast,
hanging sculptures made of organic matter, the inspiration for her life’s
work lay in her childhood. As a child playing alone in the forests near
her home, Abakanowicz would collect natural debris and interconnect
the things she found into crude objects, which were then carefully
stowed away at home.
Kalbar/TFN
Clarkson, Hammond
and May stunned by
beauty of Poland in
latest The Grand
Tour excursion
Often known for their
controversial comments on
other nations, Polish viewers
were left surprised and
delighted with the trio’s glowing
praise during their tour of the
country which aired on Amazon
Prime on Friday.
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corporations
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National Museumsays culture min.
LIFE
2. Tate Modern/ Magdalena Abakanowicz Foundation
The artist, who died in 2017 at the age of 86, also spoke of the
importance of childhood hiding places as a child and the safety of
feeling cocooned in natural spaces she had found in the forest or at
home. The act of moulding materials together with her hands became
an important aspect of her later practice – a direct contact between the
artist and her materials.
'The Face' by Magdalena Abakanowicz
Paweł Supernak/PAP
Kalbar/TFN
Abakanowicz first began working with 3D forms in the 1960s. Neither
tapestries nor sculptures, her enormous, organic forms, woven together
from various natural materials, were like relics from a bygone age. The
‘Abakans’, as they came to be known, appeared to be lifeless forms but
they could also continue to grow, engulfing exhibition spaces and
visitors with their strange presence.
Nothing like these pieces had ever been seen before. They fit into the
conceptual art bracket, but as the art world moved into the
commercialism of pop-art – or the slick minimalism of the 1970’s –
Abakanowicz’s forms continued to exist in a world of their own.
WARSAW’S SECRET WAR
AGAINST MOSCOW’S
SPIES: POLAND’S
INTELLIGENCE SERVICES
HAVE GONE INTO
OVERDRIVE TO COMBAT
PUTIN’S COVERT ASSAULT
The arrest last week of a
‘dangerous’ spy network in
Poland is the latest in the
country’s secret war against
Russian intelligence since
Putin’s troops attacked
Ukraine.
THE DEBRIEF
Mama Bush – Dorota
Kozarzewska
WEBBER'S
WORLD
‘One of Kraków’s
greatest glories is a
dog statue’, says
Webber’s World
3. Internationally, she is probably best known for her more figurative
work – the ‘shells’ of human forms which first appeared in her
creations during the early 1970s. These sackcloth casts were coated in
resin or glue and presented in groups rather than as individual pieces.
Backs (1976-80) featured eighty headless, seated figures arranged in
rows across the gallery floor. There is no feeling of interaction between
the large group of hunched figures, they simply exist as a somewhat
depressing and lonely mass. As representations of the human
condition, it is impossible to view the figurative group works as a
positive portrayal of humanity.
During the ‘80s and ‘90s, Abakanowicz began casting her monumental
sculptures in bronze, stone, concrete and wood. One of the more
powerful outdoor installations from this time is Space of Becalmed
Beings (1992-3). The piece was commissioned by the city of Hiroshima
to mark the 50th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb. The
positioning of 40 partial figures stand as a silent reminder of those who
died and also creates a space within which one can spend time in quiet
contemplation.
Abakanowicz was born in 1930 in the small village of Falenty, around
15kms south-west of Warsaw. Her mother’s family hailed from Polish
nobility and her father’s side of the family could trace its lineage to the
13th century Mongol leader, Abaqa Khan.
Examples of her work can be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, the Ludwig Museum, Koln,
as well as in many other prestigious private and public collections
around the world.
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This article was first published in May 2018.
TAGS: ARTS, MAGDALENA ABAKANOWICZ, SCULPTOR, ABAKANS
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"Tłum" (Crowd) by Magdaleny Abakanowicz.
(Photo by Maciej Kulczyński)