Magdalena Abakanowicz Biography
Magdalena Abakanowicz was a renowned Polish sculptor and fiber artist recognized for her innovative use of textiles as a medium for sculptural works and outdoor installations.
Considered one of Poland’s most celebrated artists on the international stage, Abakanowicz’s notable creations include Agora in Chicago and Birds of Knowledge of Good and Evil in Milwaukee.
From 1965 to 1990, she served as a professor at the University of Fine Arts in Poznań, Poland, and in 1984, she held a visiting professorship at the University of California, Los Angeles.
At the age of nine, Abakanowicz and her family experienced the invasion and occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany. Living on the outskirts of Warsaw, they became part of the Polish resistance during the war.
Her firsthand exposure to the impact of war while working as a nurse’s aide in a Warsaw hospital at the age of 14 later influenced her artistic expression. After the war, her family relocated to Tczew, a small city near Gdańsk in northern Poland, with the hope of starting a new life.
Under the newly established communist regime, socialist realism was mandated as the only accepted artistic style to be pursued by artists in Poland. Other artistic movements, such as Modernism, were officially banned and heavily censored in all Communist Bloc nations, including Poland. Despite the lack of official support, Abakanowicz remained undeterred, staying true to her revolutionary artistic path.
Abakanowicz attended the Liceum Sztuk Plastycznych in Gdynia from 1945 to 1947, completing part of her high school education there. Afterward, she enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts in Sopot (now in Gdańsk) and later moved to Warsaw in 1950 to continue her studies at the prestigious Academy of Fine Arts, which was the leading art school in Poland.
In order to gain admission to the Academy, she had to conceal her noble background and instead pose as the daughter of a clerk.
Her time at the university from 1950 to 1954 coincided with a period of severe restrictions imposed on art by the leaders of the Eastern Bloc. Communist nations enforced strict guidelines and limitations through the doctrine of socialist realism, subordinating the arts to the needs and demands of the State.
Realist depictions based on the national 19th-century academic tradition were the only permissible forms of artistic expression taught during that time in Poland.
The Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, as the most significant artistic institution in the country, faced intense scrutiny from the Ministry of Art and Culture, which controlled major decisions in the field at the time.
Following her education at the Academy, Abakanowicz began creating her early artistic works. Due to her frequent relocations during her academic years, many of her early pieces were lost or damaged, with only a few delicate plant drawings surviving.
Between 1956 and 1959, she produced a series of large gouaches, watercolors on paper, and sewn-together linen sheets, which represent some of her earliest known works. These works, characterized by their “biomorphic” compositions, depicted imaginary plants, birds, exotic fish, seashells, and other organic shapes and forms.
Inglot’s book The Figurative Sculpture of Magdalena Abakanowicz describes these early works as reflecting Abakanowicz’s fascination with the natural world and its processes of growth, blooming, and sprouting. They capture the essence of life’s energy, a defining quality that would persist throughout her art.
Magdalena Abakanowicz Cause of Death
The specific cause of her death has not been publicly disclosed in detail, however, it was revealed that she died after a long illness. She died on April 20, 2017 in Warsaw, Poland.
Magdalena Abakanowicz Age
At the time of her death, she was 86 years old.
Magdalena Abakanowicz Family
She was married to Jan Kosmowski.
Magdalena Abakanowicz Net Worth
At the time of her death, she had an estimated net worth of not less than $80 million.
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