Magdalena Abakanowicz (b. 1930)

Born in Falenty, Poland, in 1930, Magdalena Abakanowicz continues to live and work in Warsaw. She studied painting and drawing at the Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw, from 1950-54. Recognized for her achievements as early as 1956, she received many awards and state honors in her country. In 1965, at the major international exhibition, the Sao Paulo Biennale, she won the gold medal for her one-person presentation there. The Royal College of Art, London, bestowed an honorary doctorate upon her in 1974. In 1980 she
received the "Polonia Restituta," the cross of the Knights of the Polish Renaissance, and in 1985 became a knight of the Order of Arts and Letters, France. She has also won awards of the Foundations Gottfried von Herder
(1979), Alfred Jurzykowski (1983), and Francis J. Greenburger (1990). She has been Professor of Art at the Academy of Fine Arts, Poznan, Poland, since 1965. Abakanowicz has received over 50 one-person showings in museums and galleries worldwide since her first solo exhibition in Warsaw in 1960, as well as being included in numerous group exhibitions.