Magdalena Abakanowicz: Textile territories

In the 1960s and 1970s, the extraordinary expressive force and originality of her woven creations established the Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz (1930–2017) as a major figure at the Lausanne Tapestry Biennials. By the early 1980s, her sculptural and monumental installations were being displayed at exhibitions in Europe and beyond, winning her widespread international acclaim onthe contemporary art scene. Trained in painting and weaving,

Abakanowicz became interested in the material and spatial qualities of organic fibre as a new material for artistic expression. From 1967, she created imposing three-dimensional biomorphic works, titled Abakans after her surname. The artist later oriented her work around human figuration, producing large groups of figures with truncated limbs.

The exhibition traces the early part of Magdalena Abakanowicz’s international career between 1960 and 1985. In a Poland still under communist rule, the artist seized on the innovative potential of working with fibre, a living malleable material, to freely express an artistic vision inspired by her observations of nature and humans. Lausanne played a defining role in her success, thanks to the Tapestry Biennials, the Galerie Alice Pauli, and various collectors in the region.

Early woven works, large soft sculptures, castings, knotted works, and drawings constitute the body of the exhibition. Masterworks—such as Abakan Red displayed for the first time in Lausanne in 1969 and now part of the Tate collection—are presented alongside previously unseen pieces from Fondation Toms Pauli which preserves 50 of the artist’s works, one of the largest collections outside Poland.

As a counterpoint to the universe of Abakanowicz, the room devoted to the colourful and airy creations of Elsi Giauque highlights the major innovations in creativity and techniques developed during the same period, within the context of the Lausanne Biennials.

Publications
Magdalena Abakanowicz à Lausanne, edited by Magali Junet and Giselle Eberhard Cotton; co-published by Fondation Toms Pauli, Lausanne, and Scheidegger & Spiess, Zurich, 2023, 128 pp. (French). 38 CHF.

Magdalena Abakanowicz, edited by Ann Coxon and Mary Jane Jacob, Tate Publishing, London, 2022, 208 pp. (English). 42 CHF. At the MCBA Book- and Gift Shop during the show’s run. shop.mcba [​at​] plateforme10.ch

Exhibition organised by
Tate Modern, London, in collaboration with the Fondation Toms Pauli at the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne and Henie Onstad, Oslo.

Curated by
Magali Junet, Curator; Giselle Eberhard Cotton, Director, Fondation Toms Pauli; Ann Coxon, Curator, international art, Tate Modern; Mary Jane Jacob, Independent Curator