Throughout four decades the human condition has been a constant concern for the Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz, who lives and works in Warsaw. This over-lifesize, headless figure cast in bronze embodies, in a single form, the unique expressiveness and powerful presence of all of her sculpture. Standing firmly at the midpoint of a beam, which balances upon two log-shaped cylinders, this convex shell of a figure, of no specific sex, looms large. Abakanowicz's sculptures of humans are often positioned in groups—ranging from a dozen to more than 150—and are typically headless, conveying the loss of individuality, an increasing occurrence in modern society. Here the elevated solitary figure, though headless, seems to look to a far horizon above the viewer's plane.

In 1999 an earlier cast of this sculpture was included in the "Abakanowicz on the Roof" installation on the Museum's Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden. After the close of that exhibition, the artist offered to produce an additional cast for the Metropolitan's collection. The sculpture's surface was finished by the artist's own hand, contributing to its uniqueness. Androgyne III, a similar but seated headless figure by Abakanowicz, was acquired by the Museum in 1986 (acc. no. 1986.221a, b).