Magdalena Abakanowicz

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Magdalena Abakanowicz in her office (2010)

Marta Magdalena Abakanowicz-Kosmowska [ magdaˈlɛna abakaˈnɔvʲiʧ ] (born June 20, 1930 in Raszyn -Falenty, Poland ; † April 20, 2017 in Warsaw ) was a Polish sculptor and textile artist.

Life

Magdalena Abakanowicz came from a Polish aristocratic family , her father was a Lipka Tatar . From 1949 to 1954 she studied at the art academies in Gdansk and Warsaw . Her main interest was painting, although she also felt a tendency towards sculptural work. This development was undoubtedly influenced by the shapes and forms she created as a child on the mother's estate. Later, when she was confronted with the difficult economic conditions in Poland, the ability to transform natural and found materials into sculptural works of great monumentality and expressiveness became the hallmark of her work.

Magdalena Abakanowicz began working as an independent artist in 1956 and first gained international attention in the 1960s when she made large woven wall textiles. Abakan's series stands out, for which she received the Grand Prix at the 1965 São Paulo Biennale . In the mid-1970s her work took a dramatic turn when she began to create the heads, figures, animals and birds from sisal, burlap, glue and resin using model forms that characterize her oeuvre from then on.

Magdalena Abakanowicz taught from 1965 to 1990 as a professor at the Art School in Poznan . In 1984, she was also visiting professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the United States .

Magdalena Abakanowicz has received numerous awards and honors, including the Sculpture Center New York Sculpture Prize (1993), the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1998), the appointment as Officer of the Order of Arts and Sciences in Paris , France (1999) and the appointment Knight of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy (2000). She is an honorary doctorate from the Royal Academy of Arts , London (1974), the Rhode Island School of Design , Providence , Rhode Island (1992), the Academy of Fine Arts Łódź (1998), the Pratt Institute New York City ( 2000), the Massachusetts College of Art , Boston (2001), the School of The Art Institute of Chicago (2002), and the Poznan Academy of Fine Arts (2002). Magdalena Abakanowicz is a member of the Academy of Arts in Berlin (1994), the Saxon Academy of Arts in Dresden (1998) and of the Pour le Mérite Order for Sciences and Arts in Berlin (2000). She was also an external honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1996).

On March 15, 2010 she was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit with a star by Ambassador Michael H. Gerdts at the German Embassy in Warsaw “for her outstanding and lasting contribution to the cultural dialogue between Poland and Germany” .

Works

Abakanowicz's most important works were created in the 1960s. She began to create gigantic, three-dimensional textile sculptures, which she called Abakans , derived from her family name . These secured her a place in the international art scene and influenced all of her subsequent work. Each Abakan is made of woven material, for which Abakanowicz developed a completely new weaving technique. She often used sisal ropes collected in harbors , which she twisted into threads and colored. Abakans can be up to four meters tall and hang from the ceiling to usually only a few centimeters above the ground.

Although Abakanowicz was initially known for her work with textiles, she also exhibited paintings and drawings. Her later works, usually consisting of hard surfaces - even if some contain fibers, ropes or textiles - are characterized by (often headless) groups of figures that are modeled on the human body , animals or trees. Even if the shapes seem to repeat themselves in terms of appearance and posture, each figure has its own individual traits. Works such as Köpfe (1975), zurück (1976–82) and Embryologie (1978–81) were composed of several shapes and made predominantly of organic materials such as jute , rope and canvas .

Much of Abakanowicz's later work is made of weatherproof materials such as bronze , stone, iron or concrete: Katharsis (1985; 33 cast bronze sculptures); Calmed Creatures (1993; 40 cast bronze figures); Room for stones (2003; 22 granite blocks); and Agora (2006; 106 headless and armless cast iron figures). Many works have become large permanent outdoor installations found in locations in Jerusalem , Seoul , Minneapolis , Kansas City, Dallas , Washington, DC , Lisbon , Paris , Chicago, and New York City around the world . In addition, her works of art have also been shown in more than 100 group and solo exhibitions.

Exhibition participation

gallery

reception

“From sisal, hemp, horsehair and jute, the Polish woman creates abstract objects for often space-filling environments that have expanded the concept of textile art. She accentuates her installations with groups of figures that evoke the suffering of the creature in the camps and torture cellars of that time. "

- Art , May 1986

literature

Web links

Commons : Magdalena Abakanowicz  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ William Grimes: Magdalena Abakanowicz, Sculptor of Brooding Forms, Dies at 86. In: The New York Times . April 21, 2017, accessed April 21, 2017 .
  2. ↑ a b c Magdalena Abakanowicz . In: Encyclopædia Britannica .
  3. ↑ Claudius Reimann plays “Sografon” at the TextilWerk Bocholt: closing event of the exhibition with works by Magdalena Abakanowicz and Laura Ford . Press release of the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe , September 25, 2012, accessed on April 28, 2017.
  4. ↑ Magdalena Abakanowicz . In: Art . The art magazine. Gruner + Jahr, Hamburg May 1986, ART Lexicon of Contemporary Artists, p. 100 .
personal data
SURNAME Abakanowicz, Magdalena
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish sculptor and textile artist
DATE OF BIRTH June 20, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Falenty , Poland
DATE OF DEATH April 20, 2017
Place of death Warsaw , Poland