Abakan Red 1969 © Magdalena Abakanowicz

MAGDALENA ABAKANOWICZ

exhibition

A rare opportunity to explore this extraordinary body of work

In the 1960s and 70s, the Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz worked with woven sisal fibre to create towering hanging pieces that radically expanded the field of sculpture – she called them the Abakans.

Rarely exhibited together, the most significant Abakans will be brought together to occupy the open 64-metre-long gallery space of the Blavatnik Building at Tate Modern.

This exhibition will explore the relationships between the Abakans and a number of other key works, including War Games – wood and iron sculptures incorporating the trunks of felled trees. A selection of early textile pieces and her little-known drawings will also be shown.

Magdalena Abakanowicz was born in 1930 in Poland and came of age during the Second World War. Despite the restrictions of living in Poland under the Communist regime, she established a career as an international artist and her work is included in many public and private collections around the world.

Curated by Ann Coxon, Curator of International Art at Tate Modern and Mary Jane Jacob, Independent Curator with Dina Akhmadeeva, Assistant Curator, International Art.​

Exhibition organised by Tate Modern in collaboration with the Toms Pauli Foundation at the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne

Marta Magdalena Abakanowicz-Kosmowska (20 June 1930 – 20 April 2017) was a Polish sculptor and fiber artist. She is notable for her use of textiles as a sculptural medium. She is widely regarded as one of Poland’s most internationally acclaimed artists. She was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań, Poland from 1965 to 1990 and a visiting professor at University of California, Los Angeles in 1984.

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