Collection

Alina Szapocznikow’s works from the Museum’s collection date back to an experimental period in her life – formal innovation is accompanied by a novel approach to the body and its restrictions. Szapocznikow refers to traumatic subject matter: memory about the Holocaust, the disease, the restrictions and weaknesses of the human body. Simultaneously, her work evokes affirmation of life as well as the untamed power of female expression.

An example of a very conscious and individualistic artistic language is the sculpture Illuminated Breast. This lamp pretends to be an object of everyday use, and yet it simultaneously acquires an unusually complex form and character: on a long, slim stem blooms a flower made of breast and lip casts – the embodiment of female sexuality.