Magdalena Abakanowicz honoured with Google Doodle on 93rd birthday

‘Today’s Doodle celebrates the Polish sculptor and multi-element artist’

In Chicago’s Grant Park, 106 haunting headless statues created by the sculptor stand tall (AP)

Late Polish sculptor Magdalena Abakanowicz has been honoured with a Google Doodle on what would have been her 93rd birthday.

The artist belonged to a generation whose childhood ended with the outbreak of World War II.

In a blog post on Tuesday (20 June), Google explained the cognition behind Abakanowicz’s Doodle, writing: “Is it a tapestry or a sculpture? Magdalena Abakanowicz’s figures of woven fibre broke the mold when she pioneered a new category of art known as Abakans.

“Today’s Doodle celebrates the Polish sculptor and multi-element artist.”

Abakanowicz graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw in 1954. Her career as a sculptor kicked off when she created a series of soft sculptures called Abakans.

They reportedly earned her the top prize at the 1965 São Paulo International Art Biennale.

Abakanowicz also went on to win many more awards during her career. She won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sculpture Center in New Jersey, an award for Distinction in Sculpture from the Sculpture Center in New York, and the Commander Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta in Poland.

After a point, Abakanowicz’s art became inspired by the “human condition.”

(Google Doodle)

According to Google’s blog post, “the artist was inspired by ‘The Crowd’ sociological phenomenon – the idea that crowds act as a whole and individuals lose their individuality within it.

“Taking this idea, Abakanowicz began to create more than a thousand figures, or rather, human trunks, over the years.”

To this date, one of her collections called Agora, which is a group of 106 iron cast figures, is permanently installed at Chicago’s Grant Park.

Many museums and exhibitions across Europe, the Americas, Japan, and Australia have featured Abakanowicz’s work.

According to Google, “her rich body of artwork is now under the care of the Marta Magdalena Abakanowicz Kosmowska and Jan Kosmowski Foundation, based in Warsaw.”

Read Abakanowicz’s obituary here.