Maria Bartuszová
Maria Bartuszová developed organic sculpture, mastering biomorphic morphology, the principles of bionics, fundamental physical laws and their consequences. The “fluid” character of sculpting, “breathing” bio-architecture and the “repouring” of volumes were the essence of Bartuszová's visual thinking. As early as 1963, the casting of plaster in rubber (balloon-like) materials became her typical mode of working (the so-called “pneumatic shaping”). After 1962, Bartuszová concerned herself intensively with primary shapes and bioform “cells” (drop, rain, grain, sprouting). Later she created tactile
sculptures, combining plaster with natural materials (branches, stones) and developing micro- and macro-structures with powerful inner tension. Beginning around 1984, she formed pure ovoid forms, whose perfect shapes were then visibly subjected to artistic interference, being squashed, deformed, bandaged. She moulded open shell-like stigmatized forms with “negative volumes”, cavities and emptiness–“a small void full of a small endless universe”. Bartuszová’s organic, post-minimalist approach to sculpture brings to life a world of subtle, fragile and introverted sculptures, small shapes with strong psychological expression. V.B.
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