Magdalena
Abakanowicz was among a maverick generation of artists whose wide embrace of
materials broke down conventional barriers between sculpture and craft. Trained
as a weaver in Warsaw’s Academy of Fine Arts, Abakanowicz first received
international acclaim for her tapestries in the early 1960s. Her subsequent
series of Abakans liberated her work from the wall, and her weavings took on a
more sculptural presence. Abakan Rouge
III is among the final works of this series. The richly colored sisal, the
oval shape, and the slit dividing the core led many critics to read the Abakans
as a strongly feminist statement. However, Abakanowicz always insisted that her
work be read in more generally human terms, as images of both suffering and
healing. She stated: “When the biology of a body breaks down, the skin has to
be cut so as to give access to the inside. Later it has to be sewn like fabric.”