MARIA BARTUSZOVÁ: A tiny void filled with a tiny infinite universe

Sagarika Sundaram: RESERVOIR

SEPTEMBER: HENRY MOORE INSTITUTE, LEEDS

Ana Mendieta

TATE MODERN, LONDON: UNTIL 17 JANUARY 2027

Lygia Clark

in ‘Southern Geometries, from Mexico to Patagonia’, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris

Robert Mapplethorpe

in ‘American Masters’, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Ana Mendieta: Covered in Time and History

Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin

Erika Verzutti

in ‘ISelf Collection: The Upset Bucket’, Whitechapel Gallery, London

Ana Mendieta: Silueta Sangrienta

Colby Museum of Art, Maine

Maria Bartuszová

in ‘The Promises of the Past’, Centre Pompidou, Paris

The exhibition follows the growing international recognition of Bartuszová’s work, seen in recent major presentations including her acclaimed retrospective at Tate Modern, London, and exhibitions at Museum der Moderne, Salzburg. Bringing together key works from across the artist’s practice, the exhibition traces the development of Bartuszová’s distinctive sculptural language, shaped by her sustained engagement with matter, void, touch and the body.

Born in Prague, Bartuszová spent much of her life working in Košice, Slovakia, where she developed an intimate and experimental approach to sculpture. Her practice centred on organic and biomorphic forms, often created through innovative casting techniques including gravity-assisted and pneumatic casting. Using plaster as her primary material, Bartuszová explored pressure, weight, inflation and fragility, producing works that appear at once bodily, architectural and elemental.

Curated by Gabriela Garlatyová and Gina Renotière, the exhibition considers central motifs within Bartuszová’s work, from vessel-like forms associated with motherhood, fertility and creativity, to the hollow, egg-shaped shells that emerged in her later practice. Around 1981, the artist began experimenting with balloon-like forms, inserting thin plaster shells into one another while the material was still setting to create her Infinite Eggs.

Bartuszová’s work continues to resonate for its quiet intensity and formal originality. While it can be placed in dialogue with artists such as Louise Bourgeois and Eva Hesse, her practice remains singular in its exploration of the relationship between the human body, nature, space and the fragile boundary between interior and exterior.

A tiny void filled with a tiny infinite universe is organised in collaboration with Muzeum umění Olomouc, Alšova jihočeská galerie in Hluboká nad Vltavou and the Maria Bartuszová Archive in Košice. The exhibition forms part of Muzeum umění Olomouc’s ongoing programme dedicated to artists with roots in Czechoslovakia whose significance has been increasingly recognised internationally.