Alina Szapocznikow (b.1926 Kalisz - d.1973 Passy) | 3472

Alina Szapocznikow was a Polish sculptor and printmaker. She studied from 1948 to 1950 at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris as a free student in the studio of Paul Niclausse. In 1963, she left Poland and settled permanently in Paris. In her work, she experimented with materials: polyester and polyurethane, and made casts of her own body as well as of her loved ones. What is more, in her sculptures, one can see clear contrasts between beauty and ugliness, joy and sadness, inner energy and decay, vitality and bodily infirmity.