"Magdalena Abakanowicz: Pioneering Textile Sculptures and the Legacy of a War-Torn Generation"

Magdalena Abakanowicz 

Renowned Polish sculptor Magdalena Abakanowicz has been commemorated with a Google Doodle on the occasion of her 93rd birth anniversary.

Recognized globally as one of Poland's highly esteemed artists, Abakanowicz is celebrated for her groundbreaking textile sculptures that skillfully portray the human figure. Being part of a generation of artists whose early years were profoundly affected by the outbreak of World War II, she earned widespread admiration and acclaim from the international artistic community.

In a blog postdated Tuesday, 20 June, Google elucidated the concept behind Abakanowicz's Doodle, stating, "Is it a tapestry or a sculpture? Magdalena Abakanowicz's woven fiber figures shattered conventions when she pioneered a novel art category known as Abakan's."

Who was Magdalena Abakanowicz?
Born in 1930 into a landowning family with an aristocratic lineage purportedly traceable to Genghis Khan, Abakanowicz experienced a privileged early life.
Nevertheless, her paradisiacal upbringing was abruptly disrupted amidst the eruption of the Second World War. She was a mere nine years old when the malevolent forces of Nazi Germany ruthlessly encroached upon the sovereign lands of Poland, thrusting her family into a prolonged sojourn on the peripheries of Warsaw. They swiftly embraced the mantle of Polish resistance, steadfastly combating the odious occupiers. Tragically, in the tumultuous year of 1943, a besotted soldier callously discharged his weapon, irrevocably robbing her mother of her mortal coil and causing her to endure the grievous loss of her dominant limb, her right arm.



Under the post-war communist doctrine, the Polish government mandated socialist realism as the sole acceptable form of art. Other styles prevalent in the West, such as Modernism, were banned and heavily censored in all Communist Bloc countries, including Poland.

After the war concluded, Abakanowicz commenced her studies in 1948 at the secondary school for plastic arts in Gdynia. She graduated from Warsaw's Academy of Fine Arts in 1954.

Reflecting on her time as a student, she remarked, "I enjoyed drawing, seeking form by meticulously placing lines next to each other. However, my professor would arrive with an eraser in hand, meticulously removing any extraneous lines from my drawings, leaving behind a taut, minimalistic contour. I resented him for it."

Initially, Abakanowicz focused on large gouaches painted on canvas, but as Poland's government gradually adopted a more liberal approach to the arts in the mid-1950s, she began experimenting with other media forms.

Transitioning from welded steel to textiles, Abakanowicz's artistic expression evolved, and in 1962, she received encouragement from weaver Maria Laszkiewicz to exhibit at the inaugural International Tapestry Biennale in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Subsequently, she developed her distinctive sculpting style during the 1960s, transforming textiles into suspended three-dimensional sculptures that she named Abakan's, after herself. Her innovative approach was recognized at the São Paulo International Art Biennale in 1965, where her Abakan's secured the top prize.

Throughout her illustrious career, Abakanowicz received numerous accolades, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sculpture Center in New Jersey, the Distinction in Sculpture Award from the Sculpture Center in New York, and the Commander Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta in Poland.

By the mid-1970s, she had developed her most iconic works—severed heads and headless bodies crafted from sacking material.

Abakanowicz's works have been featured in museums and exhibitions across Europe, the Americas, Japan, and Australia. Notably, her collection titled "Agora," comprising 106 cast iron figures, has been permanently installed in Chicago's Grant Park.

Magdalena Abakanowicz passed away on 20 April 2017 in Warsaw.