Maria Pinińska-Bereś

Author of sculptures, installations, environmental art, and performances. A pioneer of women's art in Poland and one of the most outstanding sculptors of the second half of the 20th century. She was born on 17th August 1931 in Poznań and passed away on 20th April 1999 in Kraków.

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Maria Pinińska-Bereś, Działania na przyrządy kuchenne, 1996, photo: from the archives of Galeria Bielska BWA

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Maria Pinińska-Bereś was a Polish sculptor, installation artist and performer. She studied at the Faculty of Sculpture of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków in the studio of the outstanding sculptor Xawery Dunikowski. The first sculptures from her student days represented the figurative trend popular in the 1950s, and she worked mainly in plaster, cement and iron. Over time, she began to create more abstract sculptures from much lighter and softer materials: fabrics, quilts, papier mâché. Considered a pioneer of feminist art, her works resonated with themes of femininity, sexuality, oppression of women, and pink became her signature colour. Performances were also an important part of her artistic oeuvre. They took place outdoors or in galleries and addressed women's issues, personal themes and political topics. From 1979, she was a member of the Kraków Group. Her husband Jerzy Bereś was also a renowned sculptor, but both remained artistically independent.

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Maria Pinińska-Bereś, Aneksja krajobrazu, 1980, photo: Tadeusz Złotorzycki, family archive

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Pinińska-Bereś graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków in Xawery Dunikowski's studio in 1956. Most of her works from her academy days were either lost or destroyed, such as Mother, for which the artist received third prize at the International Sculpture Competition at the Zachęta – National Gallery of Art. After graduating, she embarked on an intense search for her own artistic language. In 1958, at an exhibition at the Dom Plastyka in Kraków, she showed her works with cubist and geometric forms (Man with a Fish, Birth, Birth of a Man, Ruler, Conqueror). Birth was the first to feature the colour pink, which would later become her signature colour.

In the early 1960s, the artist began to gradually move away from traditional sculpture in favour of more abstract forms. This led to the creation of Rotundas, a series of works made up of heavy, concrete-cast forms reminiscent of Roman architecture: Rotunda with Votive Offerings (1961), Rotunda with Chains, Textile Rotunda (Bell Tower), Rotunda Mill (1963). It was also then that she began using a new material in her art – fabric. The artist placed the Rotundas on soft, quilted ‘blankets’, and in the Textile Rotunda she used fabric stretched over a metal frame as a sculptural material. In 1964, she created Lady with a Bird, a concrete slab with a woman's face schematically marked with a graver, under which the artist hung a quilted vest with holes shamelessly exposing her breasts. Pinińska-Bereś emphasised the woman’s sexual attributes, highlighting their importance in creation of a feminine image.

‘Shedding mental constraints’

Around the mid-1960s, Pinińska-Bereś finally eliminated weight from her sculptures and broke with traditional techniques. In 1966–67, she created a series of works entitled Corsets (made of papier-mâché): Trapezoidal Corset, Corset on a Board, and Standing Corset. The artist said:

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Corsets once clung to bodies, subduing them into the shape desired by men [...]. The corset seemed to me to be a symbol. Its contents have passed, but it remains and accuses.

These works are an expression of the artist's already defined interests, which were increasingly absorbed by personal themes, and above all, intimacy, approached from a female perspective. Years later, the artist recalled:

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Rejecting the conventional, I had to reach into my own ‘self’. And that ‘self’ was a woman, with all the baggage of gender issues.

A pioneer of feminism

In 1968, she created the first work in the Psychomebelki (Psychofurniture) series – an assemblage entitled Table II – Feast. It is a wooden tabletop covered with drawings depicting a smiling woman's face and her bare thigh. The female body has been chopped up, as if for a cannibal feast, with the breasts and leg made of papier mâché separated by a grey linen tablecloth on which cutlery lies. Once again, Pinińska-Bereś manifested her interest in feminist issues, raising the problem of the objectification of women presented as a consumable dish. However, her works lack the declared ideological stance of a militant feminist – the artist was more interested in exploring female nature, with all its psychological richness, intimacy, sexuality, and relationships with the outside world. The artist spoke boldly, but not vulgarly, about the most intimate matters, often doing so tenderly, albeit with a grain of salt, emphasising the ridiculousness of certain erotic entanglements.

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Maria Pinińska-Bereś, Maszynka miłości, 1969, National Museum in Wrocław, photo: Magdalena Lorek

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Critic Andrzej Kostołowski wrote that Pinińska-Bereś was ahead of the Western feminist movement, as issues such as critical analysis of the roles assigned to women appeared in her work as early as the late 1960s and early 1970s, several years before they appeared in Western art. In 1969, she created more Psychomebelki pieces: Stół jestem sexy (I Am a Sexy Table), Maszynka miłości (Love Machine) and Tratwa (Raft). The artist consistently introduced erotic themes into her work, which are also present in her later works, however in a more metaphorical and ironic fashion. The Love Machine is an object resembling a drawer on legs, containing white, pink and orange attributes of femininity. They are rotated by means of a crank, as if love had been reduced to a mechanical movement. In Pink Mirror from 1970, the artist placed a pink female torso and breasts in the drawers of a table. In 1973, she created Is a Woman a Human Being? In an open, white box, reminiscent of a coffin lid in shape, a hollow female body in the form of a bathing suit covered with pink imprints of female lips was mounted on a rod. At the top of the rod, a label was attached with the inscription: ‘Date of manufacture..., expiry date...’.

Soft sculptures

Around the mid-1970s, Pinińska-Bereś began to construct works using soft, rounded and delicate forms that would become characteristic of her later work. She chose light, ostentatiously feminine materials, such as sponges covered with fabric, quilted fabrics, quilts and cushions. The shapes formed from them bore traces of dents, as if they had witnessed intimate activities. Their delicate, almost organic nature was further emphasised by the dominant colours: pink and white.

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My sculptures were hand-sewn, stuffed, modelled and covered with colour. [...] I fulfilled my desire to be able to carry my sculptures myself. With my earlier works cast in concrete, I always had to rely on male help for transport.

Pinińska-Bereś's works began to take on the character of spatial arrangements, which the author set up each time depending on the place of presentation. The artist recalled:

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I participated in the birth of installations; furnishings, their arrangement and their mutual relationships were, in a sense, an anticipation of today's fashion.

As a sculptor gifted with spatial imagination, she cared about the perfect composition of all of the elements of her installations and undertook bold experiments with form. Although she abandoned traditional techniques, she did not cease to create in terms of sculptural form. She created her own language of forms imbued with poetry. The poetic titles that Pinińska gave to her works are an integral part of her work: e.g. Voyage Across Seas and Oceans Around the Table, Leda's Dressing Room, Poetic Place, Erotic Swaddling Cloth, Passage Through the Duvet, or Well of Roses. The artist has developed an original metaphorical language, halfway between figurative and abstract art, which conceals many meanings that are not always easy to decipher.

Personal art

In 1971, the first Egzystencjarium (Existentionary) was created: a glass aquarium in which the artist enclosed, as if in an isolated habitat, full, feminine lips made of papier mâché, suctioned like snails to the transparent walls. The artist treated the Existentionaries as personal statements on topics such as love, motherhood and aggression. Only a few were created: The Double Egzystencjarium of the Big Alpha and the Little Pi (1988), The Tamed Monster (1988), and The Double Egzystencjarium of the Big Beta and the Little Pi (1992).

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Maria Pinińska-Bereś, Małe egzystencjarium, 1990, family archive, photo: Oskar Hanusek

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Beginning in 1976, in addition to her sculpture-assemblages, Pinińska began to carry out outdoor performances (Letter-Kite, Author's Banner, Soap Bubbles, Portable Monument entitled Place, Transparent, Annexation of the Landscape, Live Pink) and in gallery spaces (Laundry I, Laundry II, Only a Broom, Washing Hands, Woman in the Window, Woman with a Ladder, Woman Not Only with a Ladder, Actions for Kitchen Utensils).

In the 1980s, Pinińska's work underwent a shift towards the social sphere, with the creation of works such as The Departure of Pink (1982), The Last Ray (1983), and Covers – The Art of Touch (1983).

From the mid-1980s onwards, the artist also engaged in an original dialogue with the traditions of painting and sculpture. She created her own visions, including those based on Henry Moore's King and Queen (1986), Salvador Dali's Burning Giraffe (1989), David's Madame Recamier (1991), and Infantes (1993/97) by Velázquez. Made of welded wire, the Infantes are light but no longer soft, although conceptually they refer to earlier works from the Rotundas and Corsets series.

Emotional landscapes and inner introspection are the subject matter of the mysterious Windows series, which Pinińska created from 1991 onwards. The windows are flat objects constructed from old window frames, filled with soft, organic forms, conceptually belonging to the Psychomebelki series.

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Maria Pinińska-Bereś, Transparent, 1980, family archive, photo: press materials from the National Museum in Wrocław

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The artist did not live to see a major retrospective exhibition during her lifetime. She passed away during its preparation on 20^th April 1999. The first major monographic exhibition of Maria Pinińska-Bereś was prepared by the National Museum in Wrocław in 2024, and its foreign editions, in cooperation with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, were hosted by the Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig (2024), Kunstmuseum den Haag (2025), and Kunstmuseum Luzern (2026).

Her works can be found in the collections of the National Museum in Wrocław, the National Museum in Kraków, the National Museum in Poznań, the Museum of Art in Łódź, the MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków, the Silesian Museum in Katowice, the Chełm Land Museum in Chełm, and the Jacek Malczewski Museum in Radom.

Selected solo exhibitions:

1958 – Sculpture exhibition (together with Jerzy Bereś and Tadeusz Szpunar), Dom Plastyków, Kraków;

1970 – Piwnica pod Baranami, Kraków;

1973 – Galeria Współczesna, Warsaw;

1976 – Galeria Labirynt, Lublin;

1980 – Krzysztofory Gallery, Kraków;

1980 – Rytm Gallery, Kraków;

1982 – BWA, Lublin;

1988 – Krzysztofory Gallery, Kraków;

1988 – Gallery 72, Regional Museum, Chełm;

1990 – Krzysztofory Gallery, Kraków;

1991 – STU Theatre Gallery, Kraków;

1991 – BWA, Koszalin;

1992 – BWA – Pomeranian Dukes' Castle, Szczecin;

1992 – BWA, Sandomierz;

1992 – Starmach Gallery, Kraków;

1993 – Centre of Polish Sculpture, Orońsko;

1995 – Exhibition as part of the 6th International Drawing Triennial, BWA Awangarda Gallery, Wrocław;

1996 – Manhattan Gallery, Łódź;

1997 – Egzystencjarium, Studio Gallery, Warsaw;

1999/2000 – Maria Pinińska-Bereś 1931-1999, Bunkier Sztuki Contemporary Art Gallery in Kraków, Bielska Gallery in Bielsko-Biała, Arsenał Municipal Gallery in Poznań;

2001 – Maria Pinińska-Bereś 1931-1999, Baltic Contemporary Art Gallery in Słupsk;

2007 – Movable-immovable. Performances by Maria Pinińska-Bereś in documentation, Bunkier Sztuki Gallery, Krakow;

2011 – Maria Pinińska-Bereś, Piekary Gallery, Poznań;

2012 – Maria Pinińska-Bereś. Imaginarium of Corporeality, State Art Gallery in Sopot;

2017 – Maria Pinińska-Bereś. Traces of a Woman, BWA Art Gallery in Olsztyn;

2019 – Maria Pinińska-Bereś. Living Pink, The Approach Gallery, London, United Kingdom;

2020 – Maria Pinińska-Bereś. Soap Bubbles, Contemporary Art Gallery in Opole;

2022 – Maria Pinińska-Bereś. Meadow of Your Body, Galerie Nächst St. Stephan, Vienna, Austria;

2024 – Maria Pinińska Bereś, National Museum in Wrocław;

2024 – Maria Pinińska-Bereś, Museum of Contemporary Art, Leipzig, Germany;

2025 – Maria Pinińska-Bereś, Kunstmuseum den Haag, Netherlands;

2026 – Maria Pinińska-Bereś. Under the Pink Flag, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Switzerland;

2026 – Maria Pinińska-Bereś. Under the Pink Flag, Kunstmuseum Bochum, Germany.

Selected group exhibitions:

1955 – National Exhibition of Young Art under the slogan ‘Against War – against Fascism’, Arsenał, Warsaw;

1955 – Xawery Dunikowski and His students, CBWA Zachęta, Warsaw;

1957 – Exhibition of Young Art, Oslo, Bergen, Narvik (Norway);

1964 – 20 Years of the Polish People's Republic in Art, TPSP Art Palace, Kraków;

1971 – 3rd National Sculpture Exhibition, CBWA Zachęta, Warsaw;

1973 – The Connoisseur in Poland, Kraków Art Festival, BWA, Kraków;

1974 – Kraków painting and sculpture in honour of the 30th anniversary of the Polish People's Republic, BWA, TPSP Art Palace, Outdoor sculpture in Planty Park, Kraków;

1974 – The Artist and Civilisation, Contart 74, Studio Gallery, Warsaw;

1975 – Ten Artists Present New and Latest Works (AICA), National Museum, Poznań;

1975 – Xawery Dunikowski and His Students: An Exhibition on the Centenary of Xawery Dunikowski's Birth, Xawery Dunikowski Museum, Warsaw;

1976 – Sculpture of the Year 1975 in Southern Poland, BWA, Kraków;

1976 – Format: Man, STU Gallery, Kraków;

1977 – 14th Biennale of Outdoor Sculpture, Middelheim (Belgium);

1979 – Kraków Art Exhibition, Darmstadt (West Germany);

1979 – Eroticism. Painting, Graphics, Drawing, Sculpture, Dom Artysty Plastyka, Warsaw;

1979 – 8 x Kraków, Studio Gallery, Warsaw;

1979 – Feministische Kunst Internationaal, Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague (Netherlands);

1980 – Women's Art, ON Gallery, Poznań;

1980 – 16th Kraków Group Exhibition, Krzysztofory Gallery, Kraków;

1982 – K 18 Stoffwechsel, international exhibition

1983 – 17th International Biennial, Sao Paulo (Brazil);

1984 – Intellectual Trends in Polish Art after World War II, Polish Performances, BWA, Lublin;

1986 – Record 2, Labirynt Gallery, Lublin;

1988 – The Presentation of Labirynt Gallery, 1974–1988, Centre of Arts Tapes, The Alexandra Centre – Halifax, Centre En Art Actuel Le Lieu – Quebec, Canada;

1989 – Labirynt 2: Labirynt Gallery Presents, New Space Gallery, Fulda (West Germany);

1990 – What Is Left of an Artist in A Poor Time? Independent Art of the 1980s, Zachęta Gallery, Warsaw, National Museum in Kraków;

1991 – Polish Women Artists, National Museum, Warsaw;

1991 – Voices of Freedom, The National Museum of Women in Arts, Washington (USA);

1992 – Nature of Nature, BWA, Lublin;

1992 – Kraków Group: Works from 1957-1992, TPSP Art Palace, Kraków;

1993 – Elements, State Art Gallery, Łódź; Gallery of the House of Visual Artists, Warsaw;

1993 – Artists from Kraków, Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, Warsaw;

1994 – Hautevolée, Galerie Rähnitzgasse, Dresden (Germany);

1994 – Ars Erotica, National Museum, Warsaw;

1994 – Kraków Group 1932–1994, Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, Warsaw;

1994 – Classics of the Present Day, exhibition from the collections of the National Museum in Warsaw, National Museum, Warsaw;

1995 – Poznań Feminist Seminar: Artistic Presentations, Fractale Gallery, Poznań;

1996 – Art in Poland: New Directions, University at Buffalo Art Gallery (USA);

1996 – Impact, avant-garde cracovienne apres 1945, Polish Institute in Paris

1996 – Woman about Woman, BWA, Bielsko-Biała;

1998 – Splendour, Contemporary Art Gallery of the Kraków House, Nuremberg, Polish Cultural Institute (Germany);

1998 – Walking on Earth, Musée d'Histoire Vivante, Montreuil (Canada);

1998 – Perz – Rhizom, Pryzmat Gallery, Kraków;

2009 – Energy of Color, Grodzka Gallery, Lublin;

2009 – HOME – The Way of Being. 7th Triennial of Sacred Art, BWA Gallery, Częstochowa;

2015 – Artissima 2015, Turin, Italy;

2015 – World Goes Pop, Tate Modern Gallery, London, United Kingdom;

2017 – 56 Artillery Lane, Raven Row Gallery, London, United Kingdom;

2017 – A-geometry. Hans Arp and Poland, National Museum, Poznań;

2019 – Shapeshifters, The Approach Gallery, London, United Kingdom;

2019 – Excess crops, BWA Contemporary Art Gallery, Opole;

2020 – Penumbra Age. Art in Times of Planetary Change, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw;

2021 – Art Encounters Biennial 2021: Our Other Us, Timișoara, Romania;

2021 – Sculpture in Search of a Place, Zachęta National Gallery of Modern Art, Warsaw;

2022 – Beyond Eden, Silesian Museum in Katowice;

2022 – Let Them Sew! Contemporary Polish Sewn Sculpture, Znaki Czasu Center for Contemporary Art, Toruń;

2023 – The Art of Seeing. Nowosielski and Others, Royal Castle in Warsaw;

2023 – Artists from Krakow. 2nd Krakow Group, MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art, Kraków;

2024 – Women’s Art II, Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw;

2025 – Let Them See Us, Royal Castle in Warsaw;

2025 – Ways of Seeing, Museum of Art in Łódź;

2025 – The Woman Question 1550–2025, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw.

Written by Ewa Gorządek, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw, November 2006, updated by AJ, February 2026

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feminism