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

The human form has been the cornerstone of Abakanowicz’s oeuvre since the mid-1970s, and it is striking that her figures are invariably headless. For Abakanowicz, the head functions separately from the body as “an entity, and does not demand any completion.” The figures, on the other hand, come out of her experiences of mindless collectivity in which individual experiences were blunted. They are “negative” impressions taken from an actual model--some convex and frontal, others concave and backward. "Backward Seated Figures" (1992-93) relates to a group of forty figures that Abakanowicz created for a memorial in Hiroshima, Japan. They developed from the burlap series "Androgyns," which Abakanowicz began in the 1980s. Armless, legless, and headless, these figures sit on biers or wheeled carts that seem to emphasize the tragedy of their immobility. One example is on view in the Museum's galleries for twentieth-century art.

Backward Seated Figures, 1992-93 Installed on the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999 Bronze; 11 figures, each h. 33, w. 24, d. 29 in. (83.8 x 61.0 x 73.7 cm) Lent by the artist, courtesy of Marlborough Gallery, New York
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