(The text was published in exhibition catalogue: The Third Exhibition of the Artists Receiving the 1974 Art Critics’ Awards, Pryzmat Gallery, Krakow 1975)

The sculptures of Maria Pinińska-Bereś attract our attention with their uniqueness, independence of artistic creation, and personal expression. Especially, the last feature is uncommon in sculpture which, naturally, chooses monumental subject matters and uses respective workshop techniques: substances and forms. However, the sculptures of Maria Pinińska-Bereś are chamber-like. They are composed of non-permanent materials, like fabric, paper-mâché, or wood. The reason is that it is not the lasting of the substance, but the lasting of certain motifs, plots, and archetypes in culture which is composed by the artist. She takes her inventions from culture and makes references to myths or archetypes, but still she remains highly critical of the iconosphere created by the culture. This is probably the source of her imagery. Her need of individual expression decided, in my opinion, that the Dunikowski’s pupil has always been faithful to her problem appearing since the beginning of her creative life. As far as my programme is concerned, said Maria Pinińska-Bereś, I do not stick to sculpture as such. I do not make reference to any particular style, either. I use the means I need in a particular moment. Let me supplement her quote with the inscription made on the artist’s work, shown during the recent Sculpture of the Year exhibition: I have my small, intimate world. Truly, it is her own world consistently created by the artist. The world of womanhood with all its attributes. It encompasses the Pink Mirror, Leda’s Dressing Table, Love Machine, as well as the profile of a woman’s figure on a carpet showing Fallen Woman. In the poetics of this world there is place for irony since it is born outside the pathos and fascinations, out of intelligent observation from a distance, and tender and detailed analysis of phenomena. Sex and sex matters in contemporary societies belong to the sphere where essential experiences are focused and where the most distant cultural traditions come across. This sphere is exploited by Maria Pinińska­-Bereś in her creativity. What richness of human aspects can be drawn from that area is proven by her sculptures.

Essential and important matters discussed with reluctance, slight humour, and irony suggest to me the thought of a certain relation between the artist’s attitude with that expressed in the poems by Wisława Szymborska: the same awareness of conventionality is present in her poetry, together with the reality of creation.

I invent the World, Second Edition,

Second, Revised Edition (…)

Let us say, in Maria Pinińska-Bereś: Second Edition, Purified and Unified by her Artistic Synthesis.