Magdalena Abakanowicz | Explore & Learn | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
This installation of the work of Magdalena Abakanowicz on the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden coincides with the thirtieth anniversary of the artist’s first visit to the United States. Abakanowicz has described herself traveling as “a pilgrim who wishes to be absolved by others. As a missionary who wants to preach his own truth convinced that it will cure others. As a loner overcoming his timidity to get to know other people. Finally as somebody who carrying his own life displays it on the stall allowing strangers to touch it.” Abakanowicz believes that our experience of her own life--however different it may seem from ours--through her work will result in a “friendship of brief encounters . . . based on mutual confidence.” Three of the five sculptural works on view--"Bambini," "Birds," and "Skulls"--were created expressly for this installation. Each work is composed of multiple elements, as are most of Abakanowicz’s sculptures. "Bambini" (1998-99) is an ensemble of forty individual figures; "Backward Seated Figures" (1992-93) is composed of twenty (eleven of which are on view); and while each of the three "Birds" (1998-99) has its own character, like their natural counterparts, they travel best as a group.

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