Alina Szapocznikow

Alina Szapocznikow (May 16, 1926 – March 2, 1973) was a Polish sculptor and Holocaust survivor.

She produced casts of her and her son's body.

She worked mainly in bronze and stone and her provocative work recalled genres such as surrealism, nouveau realism, and pop art.

During World War II she was imprisoned in the Pabianice and Łódź Ghettos and in Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen and Theresienstadt Nazi concentration camps.

Szapocznikow was born in Kalisz in 1926 to a Jewish family (mother, father, and one younger brother).

Her father, Jakub, was a dentist and her mother, Ryfka "Regina" Auerbach, was a pediatrician.

Her family lived in Pabianice near Łódź.

During these years, Szapocznikow attended a small Polish elementary school in Pabiance New Town and a State High School of St. Hedwig in Putawskiego St. Her father died from tuberculosis in 1938 right before the war broke out.

As a thirteen year old, Szapocznikow was soon left all alone with her mother, as her brother went missing shortly after the start of the war.

Once they were relocated to the ghetto in Pabianice, they spent two years (February 1940 to May 1942) at the ghetto employed in the hospital – her mother as a doctor and Alina as a nurse.

The familial pair continued to work as a doctor and nurse when they were moved to the Łódź ghettos at the end of May before being shipped even farther.

They passed through Auschwitz on their way to the concentration camp in Bergen-Belsen.

Szpocznikow and her mother stayed at the camp for a total of 10 months, before being moved from the camp.

According to documentation from their stay, the change in internment in autumn of 1943 was due to Szapocznikow's mother scolding of a German doctor who "did not acquit himself well of his duties."

By autumn 1943, the familial pair was moved to Terezin where they stayed together for one more year before ultimately being separated.

The artist's experiences during the end of the war are unknown.

After the war, Szapocnikow headed to Prague with a group of prisoners while her mother returned to Łódź.

Alina Szapocznikow barely spoke of her war experiences during the entirety of her life.

However, there are letter fragments of correspondences with her first husband, that mention her war experience: "'But the difference is that in the process of your formation in the last 10 years you have not gone through that baptism of despair, all these things, everything didn't end for you irretrievably several times as it did for me in the ghettos and the camps. I'm sorry, Rys, I am embarrassed. You know how much I hate, how ashamed I am for those people who go on or 'brag' about the years of torment they have lived through. '"

Alina Szapocznikow, once in Prague, decided to study the art of sculpture.

She trained as a sculptor in Otokar Velimsky's studio in Prague from 1945 to 1946.

In 1947 she studied at the Academy of Art and Industry in Prague under the tutelage of Josef Wagner, after which she attended Paul Niclausse's atelier at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

During her time in Paris, she was introduced to the Polish community where she met her first husband,, a Polish art historian, and the director of the Museum of Modern Art in Łódź.

The artistic life of France was important in Szapocznikow's development as an artist – she was given the freedom to establish the fundamentals of sculpture.

The artist was exposed to and inspired by the works of Jean Arp, Ossip Zadkine, Henry Moore and Alberto Giacometti.

Between the years 1947–1949, Szapocznikow traveled back and forth between Prague and Paris for a time.

In 1951, she was afflicted with a sudden illness.

She was diagnosed with peritoneal tuberculosis, which was not treatable at the time.

Under the recommendation of her doctor, she traveled to Sirod in the Jura Mountains, before a relapse caused her to go to a private hospital in Champagnole.

After consulting her doctor, Szapocznikow allowed for the use of an experimental antibiotic (Streptomycin) which assisted in her recovery.

She returned to Poland, where she married Stanisławski July 1952 and that same summer they adopted a son named Piotr.

The artist took part in numerous competitions to create public monuments to Chopin, Polish-Soviet friendship, Warsaw heroes, the victims of Auschwitz, and Juliusz Słowacki.

Szapocznikow and Stanisławski only stayed together for 6 years, before divorcing the summer of 1958, though they remained close for the rest of their lives.

She became romantically involved with Polish graphic designer Roman Cieślewicz.

In 1962, Szapocznikow was offered a solo show in the Polish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.

The following year she moved to Paris where she became friends with the art critic and founder of the Nouveau Réalisme movement, Pierre Restany.

Back in Paris, Szapocznikow started to produce casts of her breasts, stomach, and legs.

Working mainly in bronze and stone, Szapocznikow's early artistic production constitutes the first materially documented trace of her own embodiment.

In 1963, the artist began to combine fragmented body parts with revolutionary sculpting materials including polyester and polyurethane.

They married 1967 in Paris.