Following its presentation in the Four Domes Pavilion Museum of Contemporary Art, the work of Maria Pinińska-Bereś – a pioneer of Polish feminist art – has been presented to an international audience for the first time. The exhibition can be viewed at the Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst in Leipzig from 9 November 2024. In spring 2025, it will be presented at the Kunstmuseum den Haag in Hague.
The artist was ahead of her time, taking on themes of femininity, sexuality, and the relationship between man and nature. The retrospective, curated by Heike Munder and Jarosław Suchan, intervenes in art history in two ways: it questions the common focus on male artists and draws attention to the fact that the Western perspective overlooks the diverse and multifaceted art scene of 20th-century Eastern Europe.
Maria Pinińska-Bereś studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, where she was one of the students educated in the studio of Xawery Dunikowski, one of the most prominent Polish sculptors of the modern era. The early works by Pinińska-Bereś, dating from the 1950s, are sculptures representing the popular figurative trend of that period. Over time, her art took on more abstract nature in its form, and the artist increasingly reached for unconventional materials. Starting from the early 1960s, she first juxtaposed the solid matter, and later replaced it with lighter and more ‘feminine’ materials such as quilts, blankets, fabrics and papier mâché. In this way, Maria Pinińska-Bereś achieved a deliberate ‘domestication’ of a sculpted form which, brought down to the ground level and set on soft fabric, becomes an element close to the observer. Moreover, her series ”Rotundas” created a clear picture of the status of a female in the patriarchal culture, which on the one hand elevates femininity on a pedestal, while at the same time forces it into imposed sexual models.
Biomorphic shapes are also characteristic of Maria Pinińska-Bereś work, recalling male, female and androgenous sexuality. These soft structures and sensual forms were enhanced by her use of pink, the colour which became the artist’s hallmark. The motifs of female eroticism and search for its release predominated in the works created by Pinińska-Bereś for many years as can be seen, among others, in the exhibits from the series “Psychomebelki” [Psycho-Furniture] (1969–1975), such as ”Maszynka miłości”[Love Machine] and “Parawan” [The Screen]. The series, which commenced around the end of the 1960s and in early 1970s, was the artist’s first daring presentation of the naked female body, her own reflection on the issues of female sexuality and the need to experience pleasure.
Maria Pinińska-Bereś attached great importance to the art of performance, which provided space for public expression of the unique female sensitivity. Therefore, the exhibition had to include both the filmed material and photographic records of her most important performances such as “Modlitwa o deszcz” [A Prayer for Rain] (1977), “Sztandar autorski” [Author’s Flag] (1979), “Pranie I” [Laundry I] (1980) and “Tylko miotła” [Only a Broom] (1984). The exhibits include some props used by the artist, such as the pink flag used to identify a visual exposition, being at the same time a particular symbol of her artistic creation.
Both in her performances and artistic interventions, Pinińska-Bereś also manifested her deep attachment to Nature, which – in her own words – was a source of the most intimate sensations, sometimes even more personal than a sexual act. The attitude of the artist towards the natural world was ecological, in the deepest understanding of this term, even if in her statements she did not make direct references to ecology. The artistic interventions of Pinińska-Bereś, whose documentary records and props are shown in this exhibition, most often amounted to brief, ephemeral gestures always filled with tenderness and respect for Nature.
↡ Photos from the vernissage in Leipzig [9.11.2024]
Fot. Alexandra Invanciu
Exhibition „Maria Pinińska-Bereś”
— Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst in Leipzig [9.11.2024–23.02.2025]
— Kunstmuseum den Haag in Hague [15.03–17.08.2025]
Project co-organized by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute
Co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland