Magdalena Abakanowicz was one of the most popular Polish sculptors and fiber artists. People know her mainly for using textiles as a sculptural medium and for outdoor installations. This Polish celebrity has been considered one of the most influential artists of the postwar era. However, you may not know, but she worked as a professor of studio art at the University of Fine Arts in Poznan, Poland. It was in the year 1965 to 1990.
As you might have guessed, she was born to a noble landowning family in Falenty, which was near Warsaw. However, due to the Nazi occupation of Poland, her family became part of the Polish resistance. Well, there are many more interesting unknown facts about this personality. If you would like to know about them all, stay tuned to us until the end. Let us take a glance!
Who Is Magdalena Abakanowicz?
Marta Magdalena Abakanowicz was born to her parents on the 20th of June 1930 in Falenty, Poland. Therefore, she was 86 years old at the time of her death in the year 2017. As we said earlier, she was born into a noble landowning family in the village of Falenty in Warsaw. As per the sources, her mother, Helena descended from old Polish nobility. On the other hand, her father, Konstanty, came from a Polonized Lipka Tatar family.
However, when she was just nine years old, her family had to endure living on the outskirts of Warsaw due to the war. Moreover, they became a part of the Polish resistance. Due to this, she became a nurse’s aide in a Warsaw hospital at the age of 14. After the war, her family moved to the small city of Tczew in Northern Poland.
Well, under the newly imposed communist doctrine, the Polish government officially adopted socialist realism. They regarded it as the only form that the artists could practice at that time. In fact, it had to be national in form and socialist in content. The other art forms that were practised at that time also included Modernism. Let us now look into some unknown facts about her career.
From Where Did Magdalena Complete Her Education?
As per our research, we come to know that this popular Polish celebrity was highly educated, despite being born in wartime. It was from 1945 to 1947. After this, Marta went to Gdynia for two additional years of art school at the Liceum Sztuk in that city. Moreover, she attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Sopot, which was at that time the leading art school in Poland.
Moreover, while studying at the university she took several textile design classes. So here she learned the art of weaving, screen printing, and fiber design from various famous instructors. Their skills and work greatly influenced the Polish artists’ work along with other prominent artists of that time.
Some Of Magdalena’s Famous Works
By now, you must have had an idea regarding Magdalena Abakanowicz artistic works. Well, she excelled in various types of artwork that helped her emerge as one of the greatest artists of all time. Let us now take a look:
1) Abakans
It was at the beginning of Magdalena’s career in the 1960s that she began producing three-dimensional fiber works called Abakans. Moreover, she included her work in a group exhibition that had the title “Wall Hangings” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. So it was her unique technique in the artwork in the Abakan series that placed her in the postmodernist art movement.
2) Humanoid Sculptures
During the 1970s and the 1980s, Polish artists changed their medium and scale. Moreover, she began a series of figurative and non-figurative sculptures made out of pieces of coarse sackcloth. She used to sew and pierce together and bond with synthetic resins. Therefore, even today, these works retain a degree of abstraction and ambiguity.
3) War Games
This is one of Marta’s most unusual works. It is a cycle of monumental structures that is made up of huge trunks of old trees without their bark and branches. Well, as the name of the cycle implies these sculptures have a very militaristic feel to them.
4) Agora
Marta’s final round of work includes a project that bears the name of Agora. It is a permanent installation that is located at the southern end of Chicago’s Grant Park. Well, it consists of 106 cast iron figures. They are all about nine feet in height and are similar in shape but different in details. All the bodies are headless and armless, which gives them more of an eerie and anonymous look.
Ending Note
So as we conclude, we can say that Marta Magdalena was indeed one of the most Polish artists of all time. Each of her works is no less than that of a masterpiece. In today’s article, we have shared some of the interesting aspects of her life along with her artworks. You can check them out!
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