Montana del Fuego

Magdalena Abakanowicz

1986

Sisal

Minneapolis Institute of Art

A textured tapestry features a central vertical element of flowing orange fibers resembling hair, set against a background of woven sisal in various shades of red and orange. Magdalena Abakanowicz worked in a variety of media but she is best known for her largescale sculptures of headless human figures, and three-dimensional textiles made of coarse sisal—a fiber derived from ropes and seldom used in weaving. Montana del Fuego demonstrates Abakanowicz’s distinctive fusion of weaving and sculpture as a “flat” wall hanging unexpectedly erupts into voluminous folds and trailing fringe. Abakanowicz was born in Falenty, Poland in 1930. The enthusiastic reception of her art in the West had few parallels among her Soviet contemporaries. Gallery Not on View The P.D. McMillan Memorial Fund