1. MAGDALENA ABAKANOWICZ

2. --Birth- June 20, 1930 in Falenty, Poland
BACKGROUND
--Birth- June 20, 1930 in Falenty, Poland
--Experienced war in her early years
--Inspiration for future works

3. BACKGROUND (CONT.)
--Education- Graduated from Liceum Sztuk Plastycznych w Gdyni in Gdynia during Attended Gdansk Academy of Fine Arts (leading art school in Poland) from
was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan.

4. INFLUENCES
--Gdańsk Academy of Fine Arts --Anna Sledziewska, Eleonora Plutymska, Maria Urbanowicz
Textile design, weaving, screen printing, fiber design

5. SOCIALIST REALISM
--Adopted by Polish government in 1949 (age 19) --The Four Rules of Socialist Realism: 1) Proletarian: Art must be relevant to and understood by the workers 2) Typical: Art must depict scenes of everyday life 3) Realistic: Art must be representational 4) Partisan: Art must support the State and its aims --Direct contrast with her later works --“I liked to draw, seeking the form by placing lines, one next to the other. The professor would come with an eraser in his hand and rub out every unnecessary line on my drawing, leaving a thin, dry contour. I hated him for it.”
Biomorphic

6. THE WORKS OF MAGDALENA ABAKANOWICZ
--Interest in crowds and individuality in crowds
--Often makes crowds from one “prototype” such as people
--Each piece in the crowd is unique in modifications of shape and texture
--The texture is very natural either being bark, fur or wrinkled skin
--"I feel overwhelmed by quantity where counting no longer makes sense. By unrepeatability within such quantity. A crowd of people or birds, insect or leaves, is a mysterious assemblage of variants of a certain prototype, a riddle of nature abhorrent to exact repetition or inability to produce it, just as a human hand can not repeat its own gesture".

7. "I feel overwhelmed by quantity where counting no longer makes sense
"I feel overwhelmed by quantity where counting no longer makes sense. By unrepeatability within such quantity. A crowd of people or birds, insect or leaves, is a mysterious assemblage of variants of a certain prototype, a riddle of nature abhorrent to exact repetition or inability to produce it, just as a human hand can not repeat its own gesture".

8. --Interest in crowds and individuality in crowds
--Often makes crowds from one “prototype” such as people to express their individuality subtly.
--Each piece in the crowd is unique in modifications of shape and texture
--The texture is very natural either being bark, fur or wrinkled skin

9. ABAKANS: Large 3D fiber works hung from the ceiling
HUMANOID SCULPTURES: often a shell of a human feature.
Abakans were in the 60’s and 70’s and brought more attention to Magdalena.
Here sculptures were next, often obviously hollow and showing the shell of a human figure such as their back or headless body with legs and no arms.

10. WAR GAMES: tree trunks covered in metal or fabric
ROPES: Sculpture of knots
War games are pieces of hers that have a very militaristic feel to them. They are large tree trunks, stripped of bark and covered and ornamented by metal and cloth wrappings. They are very large and very imposing.
Her rope sculptures are similar to her Abakans that they hang from the ceiling and are of a similar material of fiber, somewhat matching the feel of the Abakans.

11. BIBLIOGRAPHY
--Abakanowicz, Magdalena. Ropes. Digital image. Magdalena Abakanowicz. N.p., n.d.
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--Abakanowicz, Magdalena. Big Figures. Digital image. Magdalena Abakanowicz. N.p., n.d.
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--Abakanowicz, Magdalena. "Magdalena Abakanowicz." Magdalena Abakanowicz. N.p., n.d.
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--From A Group Seated Figures. Digital image. Magdalena Abakanowicz. N.p., n.d.
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--Abakanowicz, Magdalena. Back. Digital image. N.p., n.d.
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--Abakanowicz, Magdalena. Red Abakan. Digital image. Magdalena Abakanowicz. N.p., n.d.
Web. 27 Feb
--Abakanowicz, Magdalena. Giver. Digital image. N.p., n.d.
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12. BIBLIOGRAPHY (CONT.)
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