Alina Szapocznikow, "Fetish III", 1970, polyester, lace, plexiglass, 18 x 37 x 24 cm. photo: Charles De Borggraef
The broad retrospective of works by Alina Szapocznikow, presents a range of pieces created by the renowned Polish artist between 1955-1972 is one of the first major solo presentations of the artist's work outside of Poland. It concentrates on her most experimental period
Alina Szapocznikow: Sculpture Undone, 1955–1972 comes to the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles following its premiere at the the WIELS Contemporary Art Centre in Brussels on the 9th of Septemer 2011, an expansive solo exhibition of sculptor Alina Szapocznikow (1926–1973).
This major event, the fruit of an exceptional collaboration initiated by Hammer Museum 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 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 Hammer Museum showing.
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.
The exhibition is curated by Elena Filipovic and Joanna Mytkowska.
The Hammer Museum's presentation is organised by Allegra Pesenti, Curator, Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts.
This exhibition and the accompanying catalogue are generously supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
The exhibition runs opens on the 5th of February 2012 till the 29th of April 2012.
Hammer Museum
10899 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90024
Main Phone: 310.443.7000
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.
Also see:
Alina Szapocznikow. Sculpture Undone Exhibition Opening - Image Gallery