Mitglieder Details

Biography

1930 Born in Falenty, Poland

1950/54 Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw, Poland.

1954/60 Paints 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 bronze "Crowd of 95 Figures" standing and walking.

2001 Creates two big groups of walking figures. Installs compositions of six birds out of aluminum

2002 Installs "Unrecognised" - 112 iron cast figures larger than human size, as a permanent display in the Citadel Park in Poznan, Poland.

2003 Inauguration of "Space of Stone", 22 granite blocks, installed permanently in a specially prepared space at Grounds For Sculpture, Hamilton, New Jersey.

At the same time the "Open Air Aquarium", 30 stainless steel welded fish on the riverfront in Philadelphia, is inaugurated.

2003/04 The group of "20 Big Figures" (260 cm = 8'8'') is being permanently installed in front of the Princeton University Art Museum, USA.

2006 November: Installation of "Agora" - a large permanent project for Chicago Grant Park consisting of 106 iron cast figures, each about 9 feet tall. The largest figurative sculpture of our time.

She has been Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, Poznan, Poland (1965 - 1990) and Visiting Professor at the U.C.L.A. (1984).

Magdalena Abakanowicz lives and works in Warsaw.

Selected One-person 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

1982/84 Retrospective organised by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL., Travelling exhibition in the United States and Canada; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL., Musee d' Art Contemporain, Montreal, Canada; 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; Art Tower, Mito; Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art

Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz, Poland

1992 The Nelson - Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.A.

Marlborough Gallery, New York

Walker Art Center-Sculpture Garden , Minneapolis, U.S.A.

1993 Biuro Wystaw Artystycznych, Kraków, Poland

The Institute for Contemporary Art P.S.1 Museum, New York

Marlborough Gallery Inc., New York

Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design,

The Daphne Farago Wing, Palmer Museum of Art,

The Pennsylvania State University,

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

Ujazdowski Castle, The Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw,

Yorkshire Sculpture Park, England

1996 Galerie Marwan Hoss, Paris, France

Oriel Mostyn Gallery, North Wales

Charlottenborg Exhibition Hall, Copenhagen, Denmark; travelled to Kulturhuset Stockholm, Stockholm

1996/97 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

Marlborough Gallery, New York

2000 Giuliano Gori collection, Italy

Marlborough, New York, USA

Galeria Kordegarda, Warsaw, Poland

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

Tanzende und Schreitende, Beck & Eggeling, International Fine Art, Dusseldorf, Germany

MacLaren Art Centre, Barrie, Ontario, Canada

Landesmuseum Schloss Gottorf, Germany

Museum Beelden aan Zee, Haag, Holland

Museum of Art, Lucerne, Switzerland

Marlborough Gallery, New York, USA

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

Museum Franz Gertsch, Burgdorf, German

2005 La Foule V, Galerie Saint Severin, Paris, France

Stadtkirche Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany

Marlborough Gallery, New York, USA