Juraj Bartusz

Juraj Bartusz
Colour Press shot of an elderly, unsmiling man with spectacles and short, receding, grey hair.
Bartusz c. 2014
Born(1933-10-23)23 October 1933
Kamenín, Czechoslovakia
Died25 September 2025(2025-09-25) (aged 91)
Košice, Slovakia
Alma materAcademy of Fine Arts in Prague
Occupations
  • Sculptor
  • Academic teacher
Organizations
Movement
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1961; div. 1984)​

Jana Bodnárová
AwardsOrder of Ľudovít Štúr

Juraj Bartusz (23 October 1933 – 25 September 2025) was a Slovak sculptor and academic teacher. In a non-conventional approach from the mid-1960s, he created time-space statues and began computer art in the 1970s. He co-founded and headed the department of visual arts at the Technical University of Košice.

Life and career

Bartusz was born on 23 October 1933 in the village of Kamenín in the Nové Zámky District.[1][2] His father was a mason. At the age of twelve, Bartusz narrowly survived the detonation of a land mine during the Second World War. Though gravely injured, he considered himself fortunate as many children from his village were killed in the fighting.[3]

Bartusz studied sculpture at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague from 1954 to 1958 with Josef Wagner and later with Jan Kavan. He studied further at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, first with Karel Pokorný [cs] and then with Karel Hladík [cs].[1]

In Prague he met the sculptor Mária Bartuszová; they married and settled in Košice after his graduation in 1963,[1][4] where he remained for life.[4] After arrival to Košice, he briefly worked in the PR department of the East Slovak Ironworks but soon quit as he disliked promotion work and decided to make a living as an independent artist instead.[3] From 1967 he was a member of the Club of Concretists[1] for concrete art, led by art historian Arsen Pohribny.[5] After 1968, Bartusz participated in underground art circles, including clandestine exhibitions and meetings that were subject to surveillance and interrogations by the State Security. In 1973, he was questioned for exhibiting works in Hungary without official approval, as they had not passed the ideological commission. His artistic practice, characterized by action-oriented approaches and experimentation with diverse materials and forms, was guided by the principle: “The principles that are established must be broken. That applies in art as well. If you don’t break them, you remain standing in one place.”[3]

Sculpture in Košice

He started computer art in 1972, in collaboration with programmer Vladimír Haltenberger. They used computer-generated curves as a template for rotational human-like sculptures. The initial designs were chosen from random computer-created series.[1][6] "The broad spectrum of author’s work includes constructivist sculpture, action and conceptual art, site-specific art, as well as installation. In the nineteen eighties he started working with the time factor and began to create time-limited paintings and drawings, and model his works by forceful hits, e.g. throwing bricks to solidifying plaster or slamming the material with planks or rubber straps, referring to the energy of the author’s gesture."[7]

Academic career

Bartusz was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava from 1990 to 1999.[1] In 1992 he was appointed professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague where he had studied.[4] In 1999, Bartusz co-founded the department of visual arts at the Technical University of Košice,[8] He founded a department of visual arts and intermedia at the university, heading the 3D Studio of free Creativity.[1]

Personal life

Bartusz was married to the sculptor Mária Bartuszová from 1961 to 1984. He later married the poet Jana Bodnárová.[9]

Bartusz died in Košice on 25 September 2025, at the age of 91.[8]

Recognition

Bartusz was awarded the Order of Ľudovít Štúr, 2nd class, by president of Slovakia Zuzana Čaputová in 2024.[8]

Public collections

Bartusz's art is part of public collections, including:[10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Juraj Bartusz – Monoskop". monoskop.org. Retrieved 23 August 2020.
  2. ^ "Umelecký svet smúti. Vo veku 91 rokov zomrel významný slovenský sochár a pedagóg Juraj Bartusz". SITA.sk (in Slovak). 25 September 2025. Retrieved 25 September 2025.
  3. ^ a b c Gécziová, Katarína; Orgunčáková, Jana. "Necítil sa byť rebelom. Zomrel Juraj Bartusz, jeden z najväčších slovenských sochárov". kosice.korzar.sme.sk (in Slovak). Retrieved 30 September 2025.
  4. ^ a b c Büngerová, Vladimíra; Bajcurová, Katarína; Gregorová Stach, Lucia (2010). Gestá, body, sekundy (in Slovak) (1st ed.). Bratislava: Slovak National Gallery Bratislava. pp. 94–100. ISBN 978-80-8059-151-9.
  5. ^ Medosch, Armin (2016). New Tendencies: Art at the Threshold of the Information Revolution (1961–1978) (1st ed.). Cambridge Mass. London, England: MIT Press. p. 175. ISBN 978-0-262-03416-6.
  6. ^ Šperka, Martin (1994). "The Origins of Computer Graphics in the Czech and Slovak Republics". Leonardo. 27 (1): 48. doi:10.2307/1575949. ISSN 0024-094X. JSTOR 1575949. Retrieved 30 September 2025.
  7. ^ "Marschieren Marsch!, 1993 – The first museum of intermedia". Retrieved 23 August 2020.
  8. ^ a b c "Zomrel jeden z najznámejších sochárov Juraj Bartusz". www.kosiceonline.sk (in Slovak). Retrieved 25 September 2025.
  9. ^ Balogh, Alexander. "Jana Bodnárová: Kto spomalí, nájde zvláštne veci". kultura.sme.sk (in Slovak). Archived from the original on 29 April 2025. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  10. ^ Pohribny, Arsén (1997). Klub konkrétistů / Club of Concretists (1st ed.). Prague: Kant. pp. 22–23.

Further reading

  • Bartošova, Zuzana. "Juraj Bartusz". In: Výtvarný život 30, 1985, pp. 24–26
  • Pohribny, Arsén. "Under the Sign of Principles of Constructivism: Concretist's Club After 20 Years I". In: Výtvarný život 36, 1992, pp. 2–14
  • Bajcurová, Katarína. "Geometric Tendencies in Slovak Sculpture". In: Changing of Statue 1960–199.[title incomplete] International Colloquium. Bratislava, 1994, pp. 26–33
  • Bungerová, Vladimíra, Bajcurová, Katarína, Gregorovná-Stach, Lucia. Bartusz: Gesture, Points, Seconds. Bratislava: Slovak National Gallery, 2010. ISBN 978-80-8059-151-9.
  • Rusinová, Zora. "Juraj Bartusz". In: Umenie akcie 1965–1989, ed. Zora Rusinová, Bratislava: Slovenská národná galéria, 2001, pp 131–138.
  • Col. 60s, Bratislava: Slovak National Gallery, 1995
  • Vrabanová, Alena: Slovak Alternative Graphics: Untraditional, Experimental and Author's Sides of Slovak Graphic During 2nd Half Of 20th Century. Bratislava: Roman Fecik Gallery, 2019.
allikas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juraj_Bartusz