fiber-based sculpture. A student at the Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw (1950-

54), she began making fiber works when her government was advocating

social realism. Her earliest woven forms date from the mid 1960s and are

monumental hanging textiles, independent of the wall, and which she named

“Abakans”.

Abakanowicz turned the traditional warp in all directions. She was capable of

weaving in different materials, tensions and densities all at once. Her woven

sculptures have been seen as emblematic of powerful female imagery.. Birth,

life, vulnerability, and decay are suggested by forms that resemble nests,

wombs and eggs.

Abakanowicz was included in MoMA’s pivotal 1969 exhibition Wall Hangings,

the first museum exhibition to contextualise textile works within the realm of

visual art. She represented Poland at the Venice Biennale in 1980.

In 2023 Tate Modern presented 'Magdalena Abakanowicz: Every Tangle of

Thread and Rope', a retrospective of her textile work.

This is an example of one of her iconic sculptural textile reliefs, rendered in deep, flesh-toned sisal threads and horsehair—one of her signature materials—exude a raw, bodily sensuality.