Abakanowicz, Magdalena

(born June 20, 1930, Falenty, Pol.) Polish sculptor. A descendant of nobility, she graduated from Warsaw's Academy of Fine Arts in 1955. She became the pioneer and leading exponent of sculpture made of woven fabrics, calling her three-dimensional weavings “Abakans” (from her surname). She produced series of fabric forms called Heads (1975), Backs (1976–80), Embryology (1980), and Catharsis (1986). She has also exhibited paintings, drawings, and sculptures in other media internationally and has been widely imitated in Europe and the U.S.

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