Magdalena Abakanowicz
(1930 - 2007)
born in Falenty, Poland - died in Warsaw, Poland
The metaphoric language of her work has achieved a point of junction, which still is a challenge for mankind, for all its sophisticated civilisation. This is the point where the organic meets the non - organic, where the still alive meets that which is already dead, where all that exist in oppression meet all that strive for liberation in every meaning of this word. With forty years of work behind her one can see her development like a map unfolded on the table.
On this map the human figure belongs to a vast territory inhabited by crowds and flocks of headless figures. The idea of a crowd has many reverberations in her mind. One of them is the transformation of an individual into a cog.
The entire population of her figures is enough to fill a large public square. They are today over thousand but they have never been seen together. They remain in various museums, public and private collections in different parts of the world.
EDUCATION
1950-1954 Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw, Poland
NOTABLE COLLECTIONS
Australian National Gallery of Art, Canberra, Australia
Caracas Museum of Modern Art, Caracas, Venezuela
Center for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
Citadel Park, Poznan, Poland
Chicago Grant Park, Chicago, USA
Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa, USA
Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA
Giuliano Gori, "Spazi d'Arte", Fattoria di Celle, Italy
Ground for Sculpture, Hamilton, New Jersey, USA
Hakone Open Air Museum, Japan
Hess Collection, Napa Valley, California, USA
Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C., USA
Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
Jardin des Tuileries, Paris, France
Kunstindustrimuseet, Oslo, Norway
Kyoto National Museum of Modern Art, Japan
Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles, California, USA
Ludwig Museum, Koln, Germany
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA
Museum of Contemporary Crafts, New York, USA
Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
Muzeum Narodowe, Warsaw, Poland
Muzeum Narodowe, Wroclaw, Poland
Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz, Poland
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico
Museum of Modern Art, Shiga, Japan
Museum Wurth, Kunzelsau, Germany
Nagoya City Art Museum, Nagoya, Japan
Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas, USA
National Museum of Modern Art, Pusan, South Korea
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea
National Museum, Stockholm, Sweden
Neanderthal Museum, Mettmann, Germany
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, USA
Phoenix Art Museum Sculpture Garden, Phoenix, USA
Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, USA
Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
Provinciehuis, s-Hertogenbosch, Holland
Runnymede Sculpture Farm, California, USA
Seoul Olympic Park, Seoul, South Korea
Sezon Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
Sonja Henies Niels Onstads Stiftelser, Kunstsenter Hovikodden, Norway
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Holland
Storm King Art Center, USA
Sun Jeu Museum, South Korea
Toledo Art Museum, Toledo, Ohio, USA
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA
Western Washington University, Bellingham, USA
Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, Germany
Woman's Club of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, USA
Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond, Virginia, USA
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1962 Gallery Kordegarda, Warsaw, Poland
1965 Gallery Zacheta, Warsaw, Poland
1967 Kunstindustrimuseet, Oslo, Norway, travelled in Norway to: Kunstforening - Trondheim; Stavanger Kunstforening and Kunstindustrimuseum, Bergen.
1968 Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Einhoven,
The Netherlands Frans Halsmuseum, Harlem, Holland
Helmhaus, Zurich, Switzerland
1969 Stedelijk Museum, Schiedam, The Netherlands Gallery
Alice Pauli, Lausanne
Kunsthalle, Manheim, Germany
Stedelijk Museum, Arnhem, Holland
1970 National Museum, Stockholm, Sweden
1971 Pasadena Art Museum, Los Angeles, California
1972 Dusseldorf Kunsthalle, Germany
1974 Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz, Poland
1975 Whitechapel Art Gallery London, England
Gallery "Zacheta", Warsaw, Poland
1976 Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, travelled to: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
1977 Malmo Kunsthall, Sweden
Sonia Hennies Kunstsenter, Oslo, Norway
1980 Venice Biennial, Polish Pavilion, Venice, Italy
1982 Musee d«Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France
National Academy of Sciences, Washington,D.C.;
DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, Massachusets;
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas,Texas;
Portland Art Museum & Portland Center for the Visual Arts, Portland;
Visual Arts Center of Alaska, Anchorage;
Frederick S. Wight Art Gallery of the University of California, Los Angeles
1985 Galerie Alice Pauli, Lausanne, Switzerland,
Xavier Fourcade Inc., New York,
1986 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond,Virginia
1988 Mucsarnok Palace of Exhibitions, Budapest, Hungary
Laumeier Sculpture Park, Saint Louis, Missouri, U.S.A.
1989 Stadtische Galerie im Stadelschen Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt a/M, Germany
Marlborough Gallery, New York
1990 Galerie Pels-Leusden, West Berlin, Germany
Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago,USA
Marlborough Fine Art, London
1991 Retrospective travelling exhibition in Japan: Sezon Museum of Art,Tokyo; The Museum of Modern Art, Shiga;
1992 The Nelson - Atkins Museum of Art,Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.A.
Marlborough Gallery, New York
1993 Biuro Wystaw Artystycznych, Kraków, Poland
The Institute for Contemporary Art P.S.1 Museum, New York
Marlborough Gallery Inc., New York
1994 Galeria Kordegarda, Warszawa, Polska ( also travelled to Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz, Poland)
Galeria Marlborough S.A., Madrid
Fundacio Pilar i Joan Miro a Mallorca , Palma de Mallorca, Spain
1995 Els Jardins de Can Altamira Barcelona, Spain
Centre of Polish Sculpture, Oronsko, Poland
1996 Galerie Marwan Hoss, Paris,France
Charlottenborg Exhibition Hall, Copenhagen, Denmark;
1996 Display of the Hand like Trees, Doris Freedman Plaza, New York, Manhattan
1997 Marlborough Gallery, New York
Miami Art Museum, Miami, Florida
1998 Starmach Gallery, Kraków, Poland
1999 Abakanowicz on the Roof , Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York, NY
Les Jardins du Palais Royal, Paris,France
Basel Art Fair, Basel, Switzerland
2000 Giuliano Gori collection, Italy
Marlborough, New York, USA
2001 Grant - Selwyn Fine Arts, Los Angeles, USA
Abakanowicz at Three Rivers Arts Festival, Pittsburgh, USA
Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
Kunst - Station, Sankt Peter, Cologne, Germany
Pillsbury and Peters Fine Art, Dallas, Texas, USA
The William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, USA
2003 MART, Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Trento, Rovereto, Italy
Dancing Figures, Marlborough Fine Art, London, England
Landesmuseum Schloss Gottorf, Germany
Museum Beelden aan Zee, Haag, Holland
Museum of Art, Lucerne, Switzerland
2004 Hurma, Chapelle Saint-Louis de la Salpetriere, Paris; Espace d'Art
Contemporain Andre-Malraux, Colmar, France
Mutation and Cristallization, Savannah College of Art and Design,
Savannah, Georgia, USA
Taguchi Fine Art, Tokyo, Japan
2005 La Foule V, Galerie Saint Severin, Paris, France
Stadtkirche Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany
Marlborough Gallery, New York, USA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1962/76 Biennale Internationale de la Tapisserie Lausanne, Switzerland
1965 VII Biennale de Sao Paulo, Brasil.
1968 XXXIV Biennale Internationale de Arte di Venezia, Italy
1969 "Wall Hangings ", The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
1976 "Fiber Works Europe and Japan", Kyoto National Museum of Modern Art
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
1980 "Biennale Venezia 1980", Polish Pavilion 1982, Italy
"Kunst Wird Material", Nationalgalerie, West Berlin, Germany
1983 International Open Air Sculpture Biennal, Antverpen, Belgium
1984 "An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture", The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
1985 Biennale International de la Tapisserie, Lausanne, Switzerland
1986 The Sixth Biennale of Sydney, Australia
1987 "The Avant -Garde in the Eighties", Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, USA
"Olympiad of Art ", Olympic Park, Seoul, South Korea
1992 "...Reperti...: Environment through the eyes of 18 of the worlds major artists" Museu Nacional de Belas Artes Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
1993 The Fujisankei Biennale, International Exhibition for Contemporary Sculpture, Japan
1994 "Europa, Europa" das Jahrhundert der Avantgarde in Mittel -und Osteuropa" Kunsthalle, Bonn, Germany
"Itinere - Camino e Caminantes", Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Itinere - Camino E Caminantes, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
1995 Biennale di Venezia, Italy
"After Auschwitz", Royal Festival Hall, London, England
"Unser Jahrhundert - Our Century", Museum Ludwig, Koln, Germany
"After Hiroshima", Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan
1996 "Les Champs de la Sculpture", Paris, France
"Horizons" Sonje Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea
1997 "Summer 1997 Exhibition", Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, New Jersey, USA
Luxembourg Ville de la Sculpture", Luxembourg
"47 Biennale d'arte di Venezia", upon the invitation of the major of Venice, installs Hand-like Trees on Via Sciavone, Italy
"A Century of Sculpture - The Nasher Collection", Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
"Human /Nature", Spoleto Festival, Charlston, South Carolina, USA
Inauguration of the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain
"Koln Skulptur 1", Sculpture Park, Koln, Germany
1999. "To the rescue, Eight Artists in an Archive", American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, New York, USA
Art Cologne, Internationaler Kunstmarkt, Germany
2000 L'autre moitié de l'Europe , Gallerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris, France
2001 Animal Sculptures of the 20th Century, Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art, Kirishima Open-Air Museum, Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art, Mie Prefectural Museum, Japan
Europalia 2001, Musee d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain, Liege, France
Den Haag Sculptuur, "Carnaval des Animaux", Hague, Holland
2002 La Parade des Animaux, Monte Carlo, Monaco
"Les Jeux dans l'Art du XXeme siecle", Biarritz, France
"Los Juegos en el Arte del siglo XX", Zaragozza, Spain
OPEN
2002 International Exhibition of Sculptures and Installations, Venice Lido, Italy
2003 "me&more", Kunstmuzeum Luzern, Switzerland
"From Picasso to Warhol: master prints 1964 2003", The Center for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland
2004 "Monochromos de Malevich al presente", Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
2005 Blickachsen V, Fondation Beyeler in Reihen/Basel, Galerie Scheffel, Bad Homburg, Germany