Magdalena Abakanowicz

Biography

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Exhibitions

Group
Exhibitions

Outdoor
Installations

MAGDALENA ABAKANOWICZ
Biography
1930	Born in Falenty, Poland
1950/54	Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw, Poland
1954/60	Paints a series of large gouaches on paper and canvas
1960s	Creates monumental three-dimensional forms called Abakans, made out of materials woven by herself in her own technique
1970s	Changes scale and material. Creates huge cycles of figurative and non-figurative sculptures made out of burlap and resins, called Alterations.
1980s	Creates series of monumental sculptures using bronze, stone, wood and iron. Installs permanent outdoor "spaces to experience" in Italy, Israel, S.Korea, Germany and America.
1990/91	Upon the invitation of the Paris authorities concerning the enlargement of the Great Axis of Paris, she designs Arboreal Architecture, her concept of a modern, ecological city, in which buildings organic in shape, are vertical gardens. Creates "Bronze Crowd", group of 36 figures.
1992/93	Continues to work on "War Games" - huge tree trunks armed with steel. Begins the cycle of "Hand-like Trees" - vertical bronze forms.
1994/97	Designs and choreographs dances deriving from her sculptures, performed by "Asbestos", the Japanese Butoh dance group. Creates "Hurma", 150 children figures and "Backward Standing", 60 figures of adults. Creates cycles of monumental metaphoric bronze heads, animals and birds follows.
1998/99	Creates huge oval forms out of concrete -"The Space of Unknown Growth"- in Europe Parkas, Lithuania. Creates first groups of "walking figures" out of burlap, then also out of bronze.
2000	Creates a Crowd of 95 Figures standing and walking bronze
2001	Creates two big groups of walking figures. Instals compositions of six birds out of aluminum
She has been Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, Poznan, Poland, 1965/90, and Visiting Professor at the U.C.L.A. (1984) Magdalena Abakanowicz lives and works in Warsaw.