Polish sculptor, photographer, performer. She was born in 1947 in Wrocław and graduated from the Faculty of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw in the studio of Prof. Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz.

 

Falender often distanced herself from feminism typically understood as a set of political practices. Still, her works are a significant voice in the artistic statements of the 20th century, drawing on women’s experiences and perspectives. Her perception of eroticism and love has never been judgmental or exclusive. She is a pioneer in showing the male full nude.

 

Barbara Falender is an iconic example of an artist acting under the influence of rapture, an impulse that she has consistently transferred into the sphere of art over the years. Emotions resulting from her personal life – sex, love, birth of children and death of loved ones – were reflected in subsequent sculptures. In her case, separating life from creativity is practically impossible: all elements are intertwined and result from each other. However, some of them repeat over the years. It is a fascination with human corporeality, exposing the eruption of desire and sexual fulfilment, surprise with the surrounding reality and examining the processes of disappearance.

 

Zofia Rojek, Ciało. O sztuce Barbary Falender, text from the catalogue for the exhibition in Galeria Opera in Warsaw, 2020, p. 11

 

In her work, she combines experiments on the female and male nude during the sexual revolution with the great classical tradition dating back to antiquity. She is a master of sensual and idealistic sculpture in the most challenging and valuable material – marble.

 

Prof. Paweł Leszkowicz, Przez dotyk, curatorial text in the catalogue for an exhibition at CSK in Lublin, 2023, p. 13