Art as Counterforce

Art as Counterforce -

Why Abakanowicz's work is relevant in Ukraine right now

In times of war and oppression, you would expect art to fade into the background. But the opposite is true: art repeatedly proves to be an essential form of humanity, an act of resistance, a bridge between trauma and hope. The oeuvre and life of Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz bear impressive witness to this. Her legacy now plays a crucial role in a contemporary conflict region: Ukraine.

Abakanowicz was born in 1930, grew up during World War II and worked as an artist under the communist regime in Poland. She worked in silence, with conviction, averse to the system that limited her. In her stylized, often incomplete figures we recognize the fragile remains of autonomy and identity under ideological pressure.

What makes Abakanowicz special is not just her formal language or technical innovation. She is a role model. A woman who, under a repressive regime, held on to her artistic voice. She proves that art is not a luxury product, but a necessity. In her work, the vulnerability and strength of the human body are inseparable.

The Noordbrabants Museum in Den Bosch and the Textiel Museum in Tilburg in the Netherlands are currently showing an impressive double exhibition . The exhibition shows her legacy in its full complexity: as an artist, as a woman, as a person in resistance. It is an exhibition that not only looks back, but is also unexpectedly topical – because Abakanowicz's work and ideas are revived in the support for young artists in Ukraine.

2022, her name has been linked to UAx, an initiative of ELIA – the European network for higher arts education - which was founded shortly after the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Where other aid focused on refugee students, UAx chose a different path: support for those who stayed. For students and teachers who, despite occupation and bombardments, continued to teach, create and dream. They, in their studios without electricity, with torn sketchbooks and interrupted lessons, are the guardians of a culture that will not go away.

With support from the Abakanowicz Foundation and others, UAx has supported almost a hundred students since its inception, connected fifteen art colleges in Ukraine to European partners, and ensured international visibility. It is the only international program that combines direct student support with structural reinforcement of Ukrainian art institutions. Not out of charity, but out of solidarity. Because it is precisely in times of war that culture becomes both a target and a refuge.

Abakanowicz understood this better than anyone. She worked under political pressure all her life. Yet she continued to ask questions, create space, touch people. Just like them, Ukrainian students do today – and just like them, they do not do so out of luxury, but out of necessity. Art does not directly save lives, but gives them meaning. And that meaning, that inner freedom, is indispensable in times of violence and conflict.

Support for UAx is urgent. The war continues. Western interest is waning. And just when UAx wants to expand – with new fellowships, research programs and international exchange – support is in danger of drying up. Right now we have to choose: do we want Ukraine to consist only of infrastructure after the war, or also have art academies. Where filmmakers, actors, artists, dancers, directors and designers are trained.

Art gives space to imagination. That was true for Abakanowicz in communist Poland, and it is true now, for thousands of young artists in Ukraine. Their work does not ask for pity, but for co-responsibility.

It is more than symbolic that an artist like Abakanowicz helps Ukrainian students to think freely through her legacy. Her work lives on, not only in museums, but in people. The least we can do is continue to support them.

¹See Volkskrant: 'Magdalena Abakanowicz' May 6, 2025

Photography: Oleksandr Osipov. Description: Denis Karachevtsev in front of Karazin University, Kharkiv