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Magdalena Abakanowicz (1930-2017) was a Polish artist who revolutionised the use of woven forms in art. In the mid 1960s, she transformed the modest material of sisal into monumental hanging sculptures, known as Abakans, which captivated audiences and brought her international fame. In the 1970s she amassed them into vast organic environments, at times threading through reclaimed ship ropes. Imbued with meaning, they were spaces to contemplate, to immerse oneself in, to experience. This book explores the unique nature of these radical works and brings readers into Abakanowicz's imaginal world. Delving into the lesser-known context of the art world from which Abakanowicz emerged, and touching on other aspects of a remarkable sixty-year career, it reveals her impact on environmental sculpture, as well as her deeply personal interests in natural phenomena and global cultures. Showcasing the Abakans in a whole new light, it is a celebration of the mastery and determination of this extraordinary artist.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Book one. 1. The idea
• 2. The gift
• 3. Ruins
• 4. From Rome
• 5. The antiquarian
• 6. As good as painting
• 7. China in white
• 8. The west
• Book two. 9. Export
• 10. Antiquity
• 11. Treasures
• 12. Collection
• 13. Patrimony
• 14. From China
• 15. Effigy
• 16. Contorted
• Book three. 17. Zaoxiang
• 18. Original
• 19. Antiquities shop
• 20. Looking east
• 21. Turning west
• 22. Buddhist collector
• 23. Chinese sculpture
• Book four. 24. Becoming a scholar
• 25. Tenshin's dream
• 26. Gathering treasures
• 27. Suicide dreams
• 28. Elgin's hand
• 29. Arrival

"Sculpture is just a word, an English word, which elicits an image in the mind's eye. Sculpture is a European idea. In China statues, stele and other figural objects were made for millennia but not valued or collected as Sculpture. There was no Sculpture in China. Imagining Sculpture is the story of this something that did not exist. Imagining Sculpture is a series of short vignettes, historical and fictional. Travelers, scholars, officials, collectors, and antiquarians encounter statues, figures, and effigies in China, Japan, England, Germany, France, Italy, and the United States from the fourteenth to the beginning of the twentieth century. Imagining Sculpture is visual, cinematic and sumptuous--told with rare photographs, paintings, sketches, letters and ephemera. With little text, the argument is made by the images. Imagining Sculpture offers a new kind of visual narrative and offers a radically different way of seeing and knowing"--Provided by publisher