Magdalena Abakanowicz (1930 Falenty near Warsaw - 2017 Warsaw), Red Hair, 1970 -1972

tapestry, own technique, sisal, 86 x 64 cm, on the back author's patch with handwritten description of the work and signature: 'M. Abakanowicz | 'RED HAIR' 1970-72 | 87x63 cm'.

Magdalena Abakanowicz's ongoing solo exhibition "Every Tangle Of Thread And Rope" at the Tate Modern in London has received enthusiastic reviews from critics. The 26 works on display, dating from 1950-1980, are primarily giant spatial forms, called Abakanowiczs made of dyed sisal, hemp rope, horsehair, which revolutionized the concept of fabric and sculpture. Rachel Campbell-Johnston of The Times called the sculptures "mesmerizing and fascinating."
If Abakanovich weaves fairy tales from her fibers, they are definitely dark tales. They come from the depths of the mysterious realms of the imagination. It is a world as much felt as seen, which comes to life in this performance.
Reviewer Laura Cumming of The Guardian points out that the forms of these works, overtly associated with the female body, sex, the home, have an undeniable power.
I don't like rules and regulations. They are the enemies of imagination. I use the weaving workshop, forcing it to obey according to my intentions. My work from the beginning was a protest against what I found in weaving. I began to use rope,
horsehair, metal and leather, because I needed these materials to express my vision and I wasn't interested in whether they fit into the tradition of artistic weaving. In fact, I was never interested in fabric with its role as wall decoration.
I was simply passionate about what could be done with this fabric: how to shape the surface into relief, how the moving bristle stains behave, how, finally, this constructed surface could swell and crack, revealing mysterious depths through the cracks. In 1966, my first woven compositions were created completely separated from the wall, finding their place in space. In creating them, I do not want to refer to either fabric or sculpture. At most, I am interested in annihilating the utilitarian role of fabric,
and, above all, to create the possibility of a comprehensive interaction with an object with a fleshy and flexible structure. Creating the possibility to penetrate through cracks and holes up to the farthest nooks and crannies of the interior.
Magdalena Abakanowicz, 1969

One of the most important artists of the 20th century, and her works are record-breaking in popularity. She began her artistic education at the Plastic High School in Gdynia, studied at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts in the 1950s, and then at the State Institute of Fine Arts in Sopot. With her imagination and courage, however, she went far beyond the traditional framework and rules imposed at art academies. She developed her own innovative style and techniques of expression, based on materials never seen before in sculpture. Her worldwide career began in 1962 at the International Biennale of Textiles in Lausanne, where she first had the opportunity to present her canvases, later called "abakans," to an international audience. At the center of Abakanovich's creative interests was the human body and, more broadly, the human condition and place in the world, the anonymity and loss of the individual in the crowd. In her famous series from the 1970s: "Alterations," "Heads," "Backs" or "Sitting Figures," she depicted incomplete, dismembered, hollowed-out human figures - the "remains" of man. Reflections on the human being, both socially and biologically, have been a major theme throughout her work. Although she has reached for various materials over the years - bronze, metal or wood - her trademark has remained the bagged canvas, to which she has given a completely new, spatial dimension. Abakanovich's works, especially her plein-air realizations, can be found in museums and galleries around the world, including in the USA, Israel, France and Japan.