Birth of Fly
Magdalena Abakanowicz
Polish, 1930–2017
1994–97
A large charcoal-on-paper drawing in which Magdalena Abakanowicz seeks to evoke a visceral act of emergence—an organic, almost anatomical mass that reads as both birthing and unravelling.
What hits you first is the furious, circular sweep of charcoal strokes coiling into a dark, hollow center, where layered smudges and incisive marks give the flat sheet an almost sculptural, tactile depth and a dizzy sense of motion.
The work translates Abakanowicz’s sculptural concerns into drawing, treating mark-making as a bodily gesture and helping to expand late-twentieth-century art’s language for material presence, vulnerability, and transformation.
Medium
Charcoal on paper
Dimensions
29 3/8 x 39 1/2" (74.6 x 100.3 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the artist in honor of Agnes Gund
Accession
389.2002
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
