Magdalena Abakanowicz - Everything is made of fiber
TextielMuseum, Tilburg, NL
18.04 – 24.08.2025

About the exhibition

Perhaps her name does not immediately ring a bell, but the Polish Magdalena Abakanowicz (1930 - 2017) is one of the greatest artists of the last century. She gained worldwide fame with her sculptures, broached subjects that are still relevant today and left an impressive oeuvre that still inspires many artists.

Abakanowicz was fascinated by the texture of textiles and the structure of natural fibres. She used this fascination as a basis for her weavings, but also to depict the human body. She travelled all over the world to set up her exhibitions herself and placed the sculptures in the middle of the space to create an ‘environment’, a world of her own. With this spatial concept, she was one of the forerunners of installation art. Abakanowicz left the traditional tapestry far behind and instead placed her sculptural forms in the middle of a space. Her works were so innovative that there was no description of them. They were therefore named after their creator; Abakans.

Abakanowicz's studio, workshop and home in Warsaw remained in its original state after her death in 2017. The Textielmuseum visited these places and spoke to her former assistants, who still maintain these places and look after a collection of her works. In the expo, you can see a video - mostly shot in Warsaw - in which they talk about Abakanowicz's working methods.

Triptych - Great, greater, greatest

The complete story of Abakanowicz's work, life and legacy will be told at three locations in Brabant this spring: Het TextielMuseum, Het Noordbrabants Museum and the provinciehuis Noord-Brabant. ‘Everything is made of fibre’ is part of this triptych titled ‘ Great, greater, greatest - Magdalena Abakanowicz’. More information about this unique collaboration and joint activities can be found on the overarching website www.grootsinbrabant.nl. This page will be further completed in the coming weeks.

You can find more information about the exibition(s) here: textielmuseum.nl & grootsinbrabant.nl