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Alina Szapocznikow, Cendrier de Célibataire I [The Bachelor’s Ashtray I], 1972. Coloured polyester resin and cigarette butts. Private collection. © ADAGP, Paris 2017. Courtesy The Estate of Alina Szapocznikow / Piotr Stanislawski / Galerie Loevenbruck, Paris. Photo Fabrice Gousset.
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Alina Szapocznikow: Human Landscapes

21 Oct 2017 - 28 Jan 2018

Human Landscapes was the first UK retrospective of the work of the much-overlooked Polish artist Alina Szapocznikow (1926–1973).

Szapocznikow’s career was cut short by her premature death at the age 47, but her work has been reappraised internationally in the last decade.

This exhibition highlighted how the artist’s work developed from classically figurative sculptures to her later ‘awkward objects’, which are politically charged and overlaid with Surrealist and Pop Art influences.

The exhibition featured more than 100 works created between 1956 and 1972 including drawings, photography and sculpture, incorporating Szapocznikow’s characteristic use of cast body parts, many of which she transformed into everyday objects like lamps or ashtrays.

Szapocznikow radically re-conceptualised sculpture, as an imprint not only of memory but also of her own body, related to her traumatic experiences during the Second World War as a Polish Jew, imprisoned for over 10 months in Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen and Theresienstadt concentration camps.

Alina Szpocznikow: timeline

Szapocznikow in her Paris studio, with Les Gants Roses (The Pink Gloves) (1971), asbestos, polyester, breast cast, gauze, rubber gloves. Photograph by Jacques Verroust.

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This exhibition is supported by

Alina Szapocznikow: Human Landscapes is co-curated with Marta Dziewańska, Head of Research and Public Programs, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw.

Galerie Loevenbruck, Paris and the Estate of Alina Szapocznikow

Arnold Burton Charitable Trust
Henry Moore Foundation
The John S Cohen Foundation
Polish Cultural Institute

Midge and Simon Palley
Bianca and Stuart Roden
A private collector from Warsaw

Exhibition Partner:
Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw

Exhibition Design:
vPPR Architects

Exhibition Graphics:
Twelve

Logistics Partner:
Mtec