Plaster master: the art of Maria Bartuszová
Florence Hallett, The New European
November 2022
Playing with an inflatable ball with her daughter one day, the Slovakian sculptor Maria Bartuszová (1936-1996) had a eureka moment. What if she filled party balloons with poured plaster? Sometimes gravity did its work as the plaster set, as in the early sculpture Untitled (Drop), 1963-4, whose pendulous form is held for ever in the moment just before it is dispersed by critical mass.
Sometimes she used her hands to shape the still pliable form, often working the filled balloons under water, where the plaster’s natural buoyancy allowed her to manipulate and turn the sculpture with ease. […]