MAGDALENA ABAKANOWICZ

Gallery 2

September 22- December 31,1995

The exhibition of Magdalena Abakanowicz is the first in 25 years to feature such an extensive big individual presentation in Warsaw. The exhibition of this outstanding artist is of a retrospective nature. There are works from the last 20 years of her practice including a lot never before shown in Poland - among them a series of carvings titled "War Games", "Backward" and "Hurma", as well as more recent works made between 1994 and 1995. (po polsku)

Magdalena Abakanowicz is a distinguished sculptor and the most famous Polish artist - beside Krzyszyof Wodiczko and Roman Opalko - in the world. Her famous woven works, called "Abakans", gained in the mid-1960's an international reputation and were presented in numerous galleries and museums all over the world. Their success began in 1965 at the Sao Paolo Biennal, where the artist was awarded the first prize, "Grand Prix".
There will be selected Abakans - monumental tapestries of particular sculptural and architectural form - in the Centre's exhibition. Abakans revolutionised a traditional notion of tapestry and its place in contemporary art.
Since the early 70's Abakanowicz has begun a series of carvings mostly featuring the human figure or bigger groups. Sculptures made from organic materials - burlap sacking impregnated with glue and resins as well as those cast in metal of the human figure. The body being an universal metaphor for the human condition.

Ryszard Stanislawski wrote in an introduction to her catalogue , "From a rope and woven relief to round sacks - as if filled with a growing tissue - in "Embryology" and from a series of headless human husks made from resin-filled sackings to a sequence of skulls of big, undefined animals carved in bronze. From vertically aligned sandstone wheels to steel and glass cages containing sarcophaguses. Finally from a series called "War Games" consisting of horizontal trunks with branches and roots enclosed by metal - to self-portraits from a series titled "Incarnations"... This is the scope of Abakanowicz's sculptural practice..."

From the beginning of the 1960's Abakanowicz's works have been shown in many important Art Festivals (Sao Paolo, Venice Biennale, Sydney Biennale, Fuji in Japan...) and in many individual and group exhibitions in well-known museums and galleries, such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Kunsthalle Malmo, Musee d'Art Moderne in Paris, CA PS1 in New York, the Dallas Museum of Art and numerous other galleries all over the world. Her works are in many museum and private collections.
Because of the character of the artist's creativity which features problems so close to human feelings, the Abakanowicz's exhibition will become undoubtedly a big artistic event in Poland. The fact that it is the first for many years on such a large scale is also very significant. Considering the artist's status and her immense output, this exhibition is of beneficial educational meaning. The display in the Centre for Contemporary Art will be accompanied by an comprehensive publication featuring the artist's creativity (available in early October) as well as a small scale catalogue.

The curator of the exhibition is Piotr Rypson.
Co-operation: Radoslaw Rozycki
Translated by Joanna Mizielinska

The Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle
Al.Ujazdowskie 6, 00-461 Warsaw, Poland
tel: (48 22) 628 12 71-3, (48 22) 628 76 83
fax: (48 22) 628 95 50
e-mail: csw@ikp.atm.com.pl