1ma STUDIUM FAKTUR sisal 54" x 43" x 9", 1964 $68,000

3ma LUNE DE MIEL I sisal and linen 55"x 78" x 8", 1986 $80,000 LUNE DE MIEL I is from the personal art collection and the artwork inventory of The Anne and Jacques Baruch Collection, Ltd. The work is made available through The Baruch Foundation. The Foundation’s missions are to: 1) preserve and foster the growth of the visual arts of Eastern and Central Europe through donations of artwork to museums and schools; and 2) fund educational programs and scholarships through the sale of artwork. The piece was included in “A Taste of Fiber: The Polish Experience," New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art, Indiana, Curated by Christa C. Thurman, The Christa C. Mayer Thurman Curator of Textiles, The Art Institute of Chicago. A companion piece, LUNE DE MIEL 2, is in the McCormick Place Art Collection, Chicago, Illinois. “My art has always been a protest against what I have met with in weaving. I started to use rope, horsehair, metal, and fur because I needed these materials to give my vision expression and I did not care that they were not part of the tradition in the field. Moreover, tapestry, with its decorative function, has never interested me. I simply became extremely concerned with all that could be done through weaving. How one forms the surface reliefs, how the mobile markings of the horsehair will be put into place and, finally, how this constructed surface can swell and burst, showing a glimpse of mysterious depths through the cracks. In 1966 I completed my first woven forms that are independent of the walls and exist in space. In creating them I did not want to relate to either tapestry or sculpture. Ultimately it is the total obliteration of the utilitarian function of tapestry that fascinates me. My particular aim is to create possibilities for complete communion with an object whose structure is complex and soft. Through cracks and openings I try to get the viewer to penetrate into the deepest reaches of the composition. I am interested in the scale of tensions that intervene between the woven form, rich and fleshy, and the surroundings." Magdalena Abakanowicz, 1969, quoted in Magdalena Abakanowicz: Museum of Contemporary Art (Abbeville Press, Chicago, New York 1982).

 

1ma LE DESERT ROUGE sisal 55" x 43" x 5", 1984 $54,000

“Magdalena Abakanowicz emerged as a a powerful and rebellious artist in the 1960s when her weavings were exhibited both internationally and in her native Poland. Although sometimes misperceived as a ‘feminine’ craft, these monumental webs of coarsely woven, or rich, fleshy fabric, could stretch from ceiling to floor, hang pendulously threatening, or create mysterious environments that the viewer was seduced to penetrate. The forms were woven of startling materials –sisal, rope, hemp, flax, wool and horsehair – and, like, Les Desert Rouge (No. 1), the smaller-scale example in this exhibition, they could be brightly colored; but often Abakanowicz worked naturally colored material into tactile, darkly looming presences that filled gallery spaces and challenged categories of art. Abakanowicz’s Abakans are weavings and sculptures, and when produced in large scale, they become installations." Katherine Nahum, Original Visions: Shifting the Paradigm. Woman’s Art, 1970-1996 (McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, Massachusetts, 1997), pp. 19-20.

 

Book #1 CONTEMPORARY TEXTILE ART: the collection of the Pierre Pauli Association click for more information

To purchase the artwork of Magdalena Abakanowicz
or to obtain information about other available works, contact:

Tom Grotta
browngrotta arts



or telephone
tel: 203-834-0623 or fax: 203-762-5981
www.browngrotta.com