Alina Szapocznikow, "Illuminated"
The Wiels Contemporary Art Centre in Brussels is hosting a broad retrospective of works by Alina Szapocznikow, presenting a range of pieces created by the renowned Polish artist between 1955-1972. "Sculpture Undone" is one of the first major solo presentations of the artist’s work outside of Poland. It concentrates on her most experimental period in the 1960s and 1970s
After the war, Szapocznikow (1926–1973) began working in a rather classical manner, whilst her later experimentation and redefinition of sculpture left behind a legacy of provocative objects, at once sexualized, visceral and humorous, that sit somewhere between Surrealism, Nouveau Réalisme and Pop Art. Her tinted polyester resin casts of her lips and breasts transformed into quotidian objects, her spongy polyurethane forms often embedded with casts of bellies, and her construction of resin sculptures that incorporate found photographs remain as remarkably biting, visionary, and original today as when they were first made. With roughly 100 pieces on view, the exhibition puts Szapocznikow's sculpture centre stage alongside all other media she worked in, including photography and drawing.
This major event, the fruit of an exceptional collaboration initiated by WIELS and the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, is one of the first large-scale surveys of the artist's work outside of Poland and concentrates in particular on her late period from 1955 to her untimely death in the early '70s, at age 47. Those years are best described as her experimental period, and it is precisely the artist's shift to the use of new materials and forms that is the crux around which the exhibition is built.
As a sculptor who began working in the post-war period in a rather classical, figurative manner, Szapocznikow's progressive development towards a conception of sculpture as an imprint not only of memory but of her own body left behind a legacy of provocative objects—at once sexualized, fragmented, vulnerable, humorous, and political—that still sit between Surrealism, Nouveau Realisme, and Pop Art. Her tinted polyester casts of her lips and breasts transformed into quotidian objects like lamps or ashtrays, her poured polyurethane forms, and her construction of sculptures that incorporate photographs remain as remarkably idiosyncratic and contemporary today as they were when they were first made.
Although she was already quite early in her career well known in Poland where her work has been highly influential since, her oeuvre remains ripe for art historical re-examination. "Alina Szapocznikow: Sculpture Undone, 1955–1972" comes at an auspicious moment when international interest in her work has blossomed, major public collections have added her to their permanent collections, and new publications in English on the artist are forthcoming. The exhibition will travel to the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (February 5–April 29, 2012), the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio (May 19–August 5, 2012), and The Museum of Modern Art, New York (October 7, 2012–January 28, 2013) after the WIELS showing, which will be the only European venue for the exhibition.
Alina Szapocznikow, "Fetish III", 1970, polyester, lace, plexiglass, 18 x 37 x 24 cm. photo: Charles De Borggraef
The exhibition features more than one hundred artworks, privileging all of the media Szapocznikow worked in, including photography and drawing alongside her primary practice of sculpture and object-making, but also giving place to archival documents and other preparatory and documentary material. Involving loans from private and public collections, from institutions in Poland and abroad, this exhibition will endeavour to introduce and contextualize the artist's work to a broader international audience, all while revealing its resolute contemporaneity and continuing relevance to discussions of sculpture-making today.
Curators: Elena Filipovic & Joanna Mytkowska
Date: 9th of September, 2011 - 12th of January, 2011
Venue: WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Avenue Van Volxemlaan 354, 1190 Brussels, Belgium
Organisers: WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels, and the Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, in collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Traveling to the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio.
"Alina Szapocznikow: Sculpture Undone, 1955–1972", major catalogue accompanying the exhibition published by The Museum of Modern Art and Mercatorfonds in English and French editions, with a Dutch supplement available.
At WIELS, the complementary program for the exhibition includes:
- Guided tour by the curators
- Conversation about the artist with Luc Tuymans
- Performance/guided tour by artist Paulina Olowska and musician Anna Zaradny
- Lecture by Jan Verwoert
- Book launch of Awkward Objects: Alina Szapocznikow with lecture by Griselda Pollock
The WIELS exhibition is presented within the framework of I, CULTURE, the International Cultural Programme of the Polish EU Presidency coordinated by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in cooperation with the Polish Cultural Institute in Brussels. I, CULTURE is the International Cultural Programme of the Polish EU Presidency and the largest programme promoting Polish culture abroad ever implemented by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute. Additional support for the exhibition has been provided by the Polish Institute in Brussels and BNP Paribas Fortis.
Also see:
Video of the Artist's Studio by Krzysztof Tchórzewski
Image Gallery of works in the Alina Szapocznikow. Sculpture Undone exhibition
Image Gallery from the exhibition opening
Review of Sculpture Undone in Le Monde