Lot 47 | Magdalena Abakanowicz | "Ptak-Da" (Vogel)

Visualising a Polish reality of life
Magdalena Abakanowicz was born in Falenty, Poland, in 1930, at a time and in a country characterised by upheaval, war and existential tensions. Her artistic approach, her choice of materials and her persistent drive for expression beyond the obvious are permeated by these early experiences throughout her life. Between 1950 and 1954, she studied painting and textiles at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. In 1962, she was invited to exhibit at the first Biennale of Tapestry in Lausanne. Her ‘Abakans’, three-dimensional woven works, brought her an international breakthrough in the 1960s. This made her one of the first Polish post-war artists to gain an international voice. From 1965 to 1990, she taught as a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan, where she influenced generations of artists in Poland and finally represented Poland at the Venice Biennale in 1980.
In the 1970s, her works became increasingly figurative. Abakanowicz always explored the boundaries of the figure. Humans and animals rarely appear complete in her work; they are often headless, mutilated, reduced to fragments of their bodies. The resulting works appear both vulnerable and monumental, anonymous and deeply individual.

‘Ptak-Da’
The work ‘Ptak-Da’ (Bird), created in 1997, belongs to a phase of her work in which she increasingly uses metal and other hard materials. Iron and wire replace the mesh, but the structure of the weave is retained. With its dimensions of 275 x 210 x 120cm, the work automatically assumes a monumental presence in the room. The bird rises into the room, not as a lifelike representation, but as an abstract suggestion of a winged creature. A gesture of resistance also resonates in this exaggeration: Abakanowicz uses size, scale and material as a means of protest against limitation and standardisation.
The wire and iron construction lends the work an open, breathing structure. The viewer's gaze penetrates and becomes entangled in the lines, which overlap and intertwine. The wire is reminiscent of the hatching of a drawing, of the process of designing and searching, as if the artist had translated the fleeting moment of a sketch into space and metal. This creates a paradoxical tension: the heaviness of the material meets the lightness of movement.

The four wings reinforce the impression of the extraordinary, the unreal. They turn the bird into an ambiguous, almost mystical creature. The motif of the headless, which runs through her entire figurative work, appears here in a particularly haunting form. The headlessness denies identity and individuality, opens the view to something general. It deprives the animal of unambiguity, making it a symbol of life, of movement, of the constant attempt to rise up.
Ptak-Da" shows the consistent development of a motif that has accompanied Abakanowicz for decades. Probably the best-known realisation of the bird is located on Kilbourn Avenue in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. In ‘Birds of Knowledge of Good and Evil’ from 2001, six headless aluminium birds soar into the sky on poles four to six metres high, making a decisive contribution to the cityscape. (Fig. 1) Three decapitated birds also watch over the city on the banks of the Oder in Warsaw. Due to its positioning in public space, the headless bird has become one of Abakanowicz's best-known motifs.
For Abakanowicz, art is always an experience; she describes her art as "like a diary of my life, with all its disappointments and longings. By working with it, I integrate myself into the entire cycle of existence. Creativity is not a profession, but a way of existing." (Magdalena Abakanowicz quoted from Park, Betty: Magdalena Abakanowicz Speaks: The Renowned Polish Artist Discusses her Work and Life, in: Fiberarts, No. 9, March/April 1983, p. 11)
Sophie Ballermann