Alina Szapocznikow: Sculpture Between Dreams and Daily Work

Abstract

This dissertation is a monographic study of the sculptural work of artist Alina Szapocznikow (b.Kalisz, Poland, 1926, d. Paris, France, 1973). During her short but prolific career, Szapocznikow both expanded and dismantled the possibilities of figural sculpture, creating works that have been described through the frameworks of classical sculpture, socialist realism, existentialism, surrealism, art informel, assemblage, conceptual art, pop art, protofeminism, the part object, body/performance art, minimalist seriality, trauma and disability studies, and more. Her work, however, never easily fits into any of these characterizations and always moves just beyond strict categorization. This dissertation draws upon archival source material and existing scholarship to situate Szapocznikow’s work within the networks of artistic production in Poland and France in the post-war period, in so doing asking how the frameworks listed above do and do not provide useful means for analyzing her work, and, in turn, how her work can expand and add nuance to established art historical narratives.