By Chris Squiers

 When she was nine Nazi Germany invaded and occupied Poland. Her family endured the war years living on the outskirts of Warsaw.  “My work comes from the experience of crowds, injustice, and aggression… I feel an affinity for art when it was made a form of existence, like when shamans worked in the territory between men and unknown powers… I try to bewitch the crowd.”

 Magdalena Abakanowicz (born June 20, 1930, in Falenty, Poland) is a Polish sculptor and fiber artist.  She is notable for her use of textiles as a sculptural medium.  She was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań, Poland from 1965 to  Abakanowicz currently lives and works in Warsaw.

 Identification: BY Magdalena, 1985  Content: “They are about existence in general”  Patron: Purchased by Lila Wallace  Site: Private, no display, not meant for others.  Materials: Burlap. Wood, nails, resin, and string- Simplicities of life.  Scale: human-esque torso, hunch to describe human condition.  Purpose: To make a statement about burden.

 Style:  Expressive  Not a lot of color, bland nature  Still seems human, how soulless beings still wear the mask of man.  Just the torso, represents the body, the physical  Compare to the full body thinker, while this contemplates it does so with blind judgment.  Meant to see full round, symmetric, balanced.

 Agora is the name of a group of 106 headless and armless iron sculptures at the south end of Grant Park in Chicago.  The entire installation is about 300 feet (91 m) long.  Each is made from a hollow, seamless piece of iron that has been allowed to rust, creating a reddish appearance[5] and a bark-like texture. The figures appear to be milling about in a crowd; some face each other, while others look away.

 Purpose: To show the fear of crowds, brainless organisms.  Magdalena grew up in World War 2.  Commissioned by the Polish Ministry Culture of Chicago.  Meant to feel like one is lost in a crowd.  Idealistic, no heads to show people perform actins without thinking, simply following orders.

 Birds of Knowledge of Good and Evil is a public artwork by Polish sculptor Magdalena Abakanowicz. It is located on the Kilbourn Avenue boulevard in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. The 2001 aluminum sculpture consists six pieces organized in columns.

 Birds of Knowledge of Good and Evil is an aluminum sculpture located near E Kilbourn Ave & N Cass St, Milwaukee, Wisconsin  The sculpture faces toward Lake Michigan. It contains six separate pieces, each piece depicting a bird.  Three of the birds have two wings and the other three birds have four wings. All of the bird’s wings are at different angles.  The six birds are arranged to mimic the ground they are set up on.  Although the sculpture represents birds they are not depicted in full detail.

 When asked about her work Abakanowicz states, “perhaps the experience of the crowd, waiting passively in line, but ready to trample, destroy or afore on command like a headless creature, became the core of my analysis." Along with the bird's lack of heads their surface is that of an organic texture. This is juxtaposed with their aluminum material.