Maria Bartuszová
Tate Modern, London, UK
20 September 2022 – 16 April 2023
The Slovak sculptor (1936–1996) was born in Prague and worked for more than three decades in Košice, the second-largest city in Slovakia. She created highly experimental art under communism, with no links to the Western art world, and even received state support for some of her distinctive, evocative works.
Maria Bartuszová developed her own techniques, which included filling balloons with plaster and modelling objects by submerging them in water or blowing air into them. The stretchy shapes of the balloons generated new kinds of artistic form—some pieces suggest raindrops, seeds or eggs; others evoke the human body in intriguingly erotic ways. See some pictures we took at the exhibition below.
The artworks presented at Tate were made mostly from plaster, a material she could sculpt cheaply and easily when she was a young mother working from home in the 1960s. Resourcefulness was essential in gathering props during a time of material scarcity: she cast her models using small rubber balloons, condoms or even car tyres.
These spatial compositions were designed to be touched, taken apart and reassembled. She used them in workshops with blind and partially sighted children in eastern Slovakia. This was documented by local curator Gabriel Kladek. See the photographs taken at these workshops below.
María Bartuszová admired early 20th-century artists such as Brâncuşi, Miró and Henry Moore, who transformed natural shapes into abstract art. But this modern tradition of “biomorphic abstraction” undergoes a kind of disturbed rebirth when filtered through her balloons. Her organic shapes are sometimes fleshy, other times slightly unsettling. They touch on themes such as belonging, growth and infinity.
In the 1970s, Bartuszová—like many other Czechoslovak artists living under a totalitarian regime—was drawn to spirituality. Nature offered her a setting for therapeutic and meditative contemplation. This inspired her to create works in which plaster merges with living and inanimate natural objects, such as stones or tree branches, which for her symbolised the strong bonds and constraints within human relationships.
Maria Bartuszová’s exhibition comes at a time when the art world seems intent on redeeming itself by bringing attention to female artists who were previously overlooked compared to their male counterparts working during the same period.
Her work was scarcely recognised in socialist Czechoslovakia. However, over the past 15 years, appreciation for her art has grown widely. Today, her work is held in the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava and Tate in London. It was also featured in the curated selection “Milk of Dreams” at the Venice Biennale, Arsenale area (April–November 2022).
As a mother of two young children working from home, I felt a connection with the artist in relation to finding new ways to entertain my kids by making art. Her work was exploratory and highly engaging with audiences—something that we, The Art Berries, truly admire.
Price: £16 / Free for Members.
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