Magdalena Abakanowicz: Great, greater, greatest

Het Noordbrabants Museum and TextielMuseum announce a threefold exhibition of the Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz (1932–2017) in the Netherlands from 18 April to 24 August 2025. The project emphasizes the world-famous Abakans as well as lesser-known sculptures, drawings, films and installations. Abakanowicz is considered an installation-art pioneer and one of the most influential post-war Polish artists.  

Throughout her life, Magdalena Abakanowicz engaged with pressing ecological, geopolitical and cultural questions concerning the human condition. She examined traces of loss, trauma and recovery through often large-scale installations. The exhibitions Everything is made of fiber (TextielMuseum) and Human Nature (Het Noordbrabants Museum) depart from her magnus opus in the Provinciehuis of North Brabant, titled Bois le Duc (1971).  

Abakanowicz's most celebrated works came into existence in 1967 with her creation of three-dimensional fibre works called Abakans. By 1973, she began to make humanoid sculptures, which became her focus in the 1980s. These works reflected the anonymity and conflict of the individual in the midst of the crowd, as she called it, a theme influenced in part by her life under a communist regime. In the 1990s, she gained further recognition for her large-scale installations in nature, with which she felt a close connection.  

Everything is made of fiber 
The exhibition Everything is made of fiber at the TextielMuseum focusses on Abakanowicz’s textile oeuvre, with a large installation of her famous Abakans as its centrepiece. The exhibition tells the story of the emancipation of textiles from craft to art. For a long time, textiles were considered a material unsuitable for making independent art. The work was considered artistic handicraft, applied art, decorative art or, best case scenario, fibre art or textile art. The fact that it was predominantly women artists who worked with textiles contributed to this perception. Abakanowicz changed this narrative, transforming what was once considered a craft into a powerful and independent art form. As a pioneer in the field, she has left an enduring legacy. 

Human Nature 
The exhibition Human Nature rereads Abakanowicz’s oeuvre against the background of current climate change and shifting geopolitical relations, again in Eastern Europe, with humans as actors. As a reaction to the Anthropocene, in which humans dominate nature, humans as part of nature are a wrenching concept. Moreover, and uniquely, the curatorial approach is interhistorical by connecting Abakanowicz’s views with contemporary artistic visions. These counterpoints allow for a new, close reading of Abakanowicz’s work in the present. They are manifested in the work of Kader Attia, Marlene Dumas, Anish Kapoor, Kimsooja and Diana Thater, one in each of five galleries in the museum. This interhistorical approach is extended through commissioned works by Kristina Benjocki, Stijn Verhoeff and choreographer Nicole Beutler.  

Symposium 
An international symposium will be held on June 12, in the Provinciehuis of North Brabant, with Bois le Duc as the backdrop. Keynote speakers include Ann Coxon (former curator of the Tate Modern) and Tomasz Fudala (Curator of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw). A publication (expected this fall), which is being developed with publisher Hatje Cantz in collaboration with the Abakanowicz Arts and Culture Charitable Foundation, will extend the rereadings through the counterpoints.  

Follow grootsinbrabant.nl to stay up to date as the projects unfold. 

Curators of Everything is made of fiber at the TextielMuseum:  Marta Kowalewska (Chair of the supervisory board of the Marta Magdalena Abakanowicz—Kosmowska and Jan Kosmowski Foundation, Warsaw, Poland, co-curator TextielMuseum) and Sjouk Hoitsma (Head of Collections, TextielMuseum).  

Curators of Human Nature at Het Noordbrabants Museum: Jacqueline Grandjean (director and curator at Het Noordbrabants Museum), Magdalena Sajnog (assistant-curator) and Els Hoek (curator education), Helmie van Limpt (researcher).