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PRESENCE, ESSENCE, IDENTITY: Magdalena Abakanowicz

September 2019 – October 2020

WHERE?
The Museum of Art in Timisoara, Romania
WHEN?
September 2019 – October 2020

Curated by Maria Rus Bojan, Chairman of the Board of the EAEF.
September 20 – October 25, 201.

Featuring an impressive selection of sculptures, ranging from the early 1970’s to the late 2000’s, this largeretrospective of the renowned Polish artist opens on September 19, 2019 at The Museum of Art Timişoara.

The exhibition at the Museum of Art Timişoara is co-curated by Cristina Bută.

The works on view belong to The Magdalena Abakanowicz Foundation, Warsaw, Artur Trawinski and Irmina Nazar collection, Wroclaw, Marek Trzaskowsk, Poznan and Ovidiu Şandor collection, Timişoara

 

One of the major figures of contemporary art in the world, Magdalena Abakanowiczgained her international notoriety in the 1960’s for her experimental, and highly uncommon at the time, gigantic fiber sculptures entitled generically Abakans. These fluid woven structures made of organic materials significantly expanded the traditional meaning of sculpture, transforming the flat surface of a tapestry into a dynamic, space-organized form that triggers complex visual and tactile experiences.

Throughout her entire life, Abakanowicz devoted her creative energy to the restless exploration of the dialectical relationship between the human being and the larger natural world. She translated her understanding about the essence of things into unique sculptural representations that challenge conventional ideas of art and raise universal questions about human experience.

This exhibition proposes a consistent overview on the artist’s creation, highlighting key works from different stages in her career, such as the Hurma cycle. The haunting crowds of headless human figures suggest, just like other emblematic human and non-human figures in Abakanowicz’s work, the frozen witnesses of history.

Featuring more than 100 sculptures, the exhibition aims to provide an understanding of the major issues in Abakanowicz’s work, and to illustrate the ways in which she revolutionized the history of sculpture through a lifelong commitment to constant reinvention. The crucial themes in the artist’s works are freedom and loss, resurrection and destruction, identity and difference.

The presentation at the Museum of Art Timisoara is the third installment of an individual retrospective presentation realised in cooperation with the artist’s estate from Warsaw, following the exhibitions Effigies of Life, A tribute to Magdalena Abakanowicz (Wroclaw, 2017) curated by Mariusz Hermansdorfer together with Maria Rus Bojan and Magdalena Abakanowicz:Presence, Essence, Identity (Wałbrzych, 2018) curated by Maria Rus Bojan together with Magdalena Mielnicka.