Free from All Rules

1980s Artists

Magdalena Abakanowicz, the subject of a 1982 MCA exhibition, talks about the inspiration for her work.

I wanted to know what art is and what it has to do with me and with this necessity I always had. It was a very difficult period of brutally imposed socialistic realism. But not only this was a disappointment, I learned about fashion in art. I learned about different direction tendencies and philosophies in art. And I understood that my imagination doesn’t fit in any of the existing directions and that I must absolutely build my own way. I wanted to go as far as possible from all what in art existed. Because I wanted to be completely free from all the rules and prescriptions, from all the categories.

Magdalena Abakanowicz, Cage, 1981. Burlap, glue, and wood; cage: 66 × 46 × 61 in. (167.6 × 116.8 × 155 cm). Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, gift of Ralph I. and Helyn D. Goldenberg, 1982.37.a–b. Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago.

Magdalena Abakanowicz, Cage, 1981. Burlap, glue, and wood; cage: 66 × 46 × 61 in. (167.6 × 116.8 × 155 cm). Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, gift of Ralph I. and Helyn D. Goldenberg, 1982.37.a–b. Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago.

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