Following the critically acclaimed retrospective curated by Juliet Bingham at Tate Modern in 2022, Alison Jacques presents a solo exhibition of work by pioneering Slovak artist Maria Bartuszová (b.1936, Prague; d.1996, Košice). The title of the show, ‘The Butterfly Effect’, is taken from an entry in one of Bartuszová’s unpublished diaries in which she describes how small changes in life and nature can lead to major shifts and unpredictable consequences.
Bartuszová’s work reflects how life and art are interconnected with nature’s cyclical processes, expressing how we are all part of a complex and symbiotic ecosystem. The exhibition is realised in collaboration with the Estate of Maria Bartuszová, which was established by the artist’s daughters Anna and Veronika Bartuszová, and her granddaughters Soňa and Sofia, to preserve and share the artist’s legacy. A catalogue raisonné, edited by Gabriela Garlatyová, Curator of the Archive and the Estate of Maria Bartuszová, was published in 2022.
This exhibition spans three decades of Bartuszová’s practice, presenting early works from the 1960s through to the 1980s. Many of these intimate sculptures allude to nature from a female perspective: sprouting seeds, wheat grains, raindrops, and trees in the wind.
