65bb 2/14 folded basket, linen and sea buckthron, 4” x 5” x 5”, 2011, $600
56bb 26/10, striped basket with black fields and barberry, 4" x 6" x 6", 2011, $600
25bb 1-00 linen and quills, 4” x 4.35” x 4.5”, 2000, $500
25bb (1-00), Birgit Birkkjaer, linen, with quills, 4" x 4.5" x 4.5", 2000, $500
56bb #26/10, striped basket with black fields and barberry, 4" x 6" x 6", 2011
Selected collections and exhibition venues:
Round Tower, Sao Paolo, Brazil (FIOS 2 Brazil); National Art Gallery, Sweden (Nordic Profiles, traveling exhibition Denmark, Norway and Finland); Aarhus Art Building, Denmark (New Aspects); Museum of Applied Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark (Metaphysical Baskets; solo exhibition); Museum of Decorative Art, Copenhagen, Denmark; City Hall, Hohen Neuendorf, Germany; Szombathely, Hungary (9th International Biennial of Miniature Textiles); Herning Museum, Denmark (Textile Sets); Nagoya, Japan (In Our Hands, Mixed Media, Small-Scale and 3-Dimensional Works); Craft Office, Bonn, Germany (Still Life): Wayne Art Center, Pennsylvania; Edsel & Ethel Ford House Gallery, Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan (Green from the Get Go: International Contemporary Basketmakers).
65bb 2/14 folded basket, linen and sea buckthron, 4” x 5” x 5”, 2011, $600
Statement:
My art has always been a protest against what I have met with in weaving. I started to use rope, horsehair, metal, and fur because I needed these materials to give my vision expression and I did not care that they were not part of the tradition in the field. Moreover, tapestry, with its decorative function, has never interested me. I simply became extremely concerned with all that could be done through weaving. How one forms the surface reliefs, how the mobile markings of the horsehair will be put into place and, finally, how this constructed surface can swell and burst, showing a glimpse of mysterious depths through the cracks. In 1966 I completed my first woven forms that are independent of the walls and exist in space. In creating them I did not want to relate to either tapestry or sculpture. Ultimately it is the total obliteration of the utilitarian function of tapestry that fascinates me. My particular aim is to create possibilities for complete communion with an object whose structure is complex and soft. Through cracks and openings I try to get the viewer to penetrate into the deepest reaches of the composition. I am interested in the scale of tensions that intervene between the woven form, rich and fleshy, and the surroundings." Magdalena Abakanowicz, 1969, quoted in Magdalena Abakanowicz: Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (Abbeville Press, Chicago, New York 1982).
