Cecyna Flower
Magdalena Abakanowicz
Polish, 1930–2017
1999
A large ink and charcoal on paper drawing in which Magdalena Abakanowicz renders a monumental, ambiguous organic form—part flower, part torso—probing material presence, vulnerability, and the body's memory.
At this scale you notice broad, wet ink washes and dense charcoal strokes that form a central vertical cleft and billowing, skinlike surfaces where pigment pools, bleeds, and dries into velvety blacks and luminous grays.
Translating her sculptural concerns into two dimensions, this late work extends Abakanowicz’s exploration of the body and materiality and helped expand postwar European art’s language for expressing memory, trauma, and the tactile trace of making.
Medium
Ink and charcoal on paper
Dimensions
39 3/8 x 29 5/8" (100 x 75.2 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the artist in honor of Agnes Gund
Accession
390.2002
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
