Art Class - Magdalena

 

Today's Google Doodle is to honor the 93rd birthday of Magdalena Abakanowicz, a Polish sculptor and fiber artist.

Born in 1930, her childhood was disrupted by World War II.  She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw in 1954.

She initially painted gouaches on canvas, such as From the Birds Cycle, 1957.

Fish, 1955/56.

In the 1960's she began experimenting with soft sculptures, turning fabric into three-dimensional forms, which were called Abakans.  She won top prize at the Sao Paulo International Art Biennial in 1965.

Backs, started in 1967.

Abakan Red, 1969.

From the exhibit, Every Tangle of Thread and Rope.

Her work, Agora, is featured in Chicago Grant Park, and is considered her most important statement about humanity, inspired by "The Crowd" sociological phenomenon - that crowds act as a whole and individuals lose their individuality within.

In Milwaukee, The Group of Five.