Czechoslovak sculptor Maria Bartuszová seems to have fallen out of the development of art history, yet she is significant for the Czech environment. This retrospective exhibition at the Olomouc Museum of Art brings the forgotten artist, belonging to the post-war artistic neo-avant-garde, back into the context of Czech art. The exhibition was created in cooperation with the Maria Bartuszová Archive in Košice and the Aleš South Bohemian Gallery in Hluboká nad Vltavou, where it premiered.
A specific intention of the exhibition as a living organism is that it begins with the end of the sculptor's work, i.e., with works from the 1980s. In this period, she created spectacular site-specific installations and large-scale objects. Visitors will see large plaster reliefs and objects created using the pneumatic casting technique, as well as smaller plaster gravistimulated sculptures and their bronze or aluminum casts, some of which are being exhibited for the first time.
Maria Bartuszová (1936–1996)
She was born in Prague, where she lived until 1961. She studied at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, and the impulses she gained there were fundamental to her work.
She moved to Slovakia with her husband, sculptor Juraj Bartusz (1933–2025), whom she met during her studies in Prague. The couple settled in Košice in eastern Slovakia, a city that became Maria Bartuszová's new home, where she lived and worked until the end of her life.
At the same time, the story of an artist on the margins, the different, the minority, the foreign, unfolded there, shaping her work as an authentic trace that transcended the context in which it originated.
The title of the exhibition, a quote taken from Maria Bartuszová's notebook, hints at the contemplative way Bartuszová thought. In her work, Maria Bartuszová was inspired by the ideas of Zen Buddhism and a holistic approach to life, which she combined with the themes of nature and the universe.
The exhibition follows significant presentations of Maria Bartuszová in solo exhibitions at Tate Modern in London (curator Juliet Bingham) and the Museum der Moderne in Salzburg, which took place in 2022–2024. Bartuszová's work was internationally presented at documenta 12 in Kassel in 2007 (curator Ruth Noack) and at the Venice Biennale in 2022 (curator Cecilia Alemani). Her works are in the collections of Tate in London, Kontakt in Vienna, Centre Pompidou in Paris, and other museums and private collections.
The Olomouc Museum of Art acquired three works by Maria Bartuszová for the Central European Forum Olomouc collection, thus joining many important institutions that own her works (Tate, Kontakt in Vienna, Centre Pompidou in Paris, and others).
Information about the exhibition
EXHIBITION: Maria Bartuszová | A Small Void Full of a Small Infinite Universe
DATE: 06 05 – 13 09 2026
OPENING: 06 05 2026 at 6:30 PM
LOCATION: Museum of Modern Art, Three-Naved Hall
CURATORS: Gabriela Garlatyová, Gina Renotière
EXPERT COLLABORATION: Anna Bartuszová, Soňa Bartuszová
SPATIAL DESIGN: Anna Bartuszová, Gabriela Garlatyová, Michal Soukup
TEXT EDITING AND TRANSLATIONS: Eva Hrubá, Lucie Kasíková, Zuzana Henešová
GRAPHIC DESIGN: Kateřina Manková
INSTALLATION: Vlastimil Sedláček, Filip Šindelář, Radka Žáková
PHOTOGRAPHY: Anna Bartuszová; Archive of Maria Bartuszová, Košice; Michael Brzezinski; Gabriel Kladek; Viera Kladeková; Rudo Prekop
EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS: David Hrbek, Denisa Tessenyi
LOANS OF EXHIBITS: Collection of the Bartusz family, Košice; Collection of Robert Runták
Museum opening hours: Wednesday–Sunday from 10 AM to 6 PM
Maria Bartuszová | A Small Void Full of a Small Infinite Universe
May 6 – Sep 13, 2026
