The controversial and ground-breaking Czech artist Toyen was born as Marie Čermínová in 1902. Her childhood, her family life, her background, are all mysterious. She wanted to break free from the past and the tradition, both in her art and in her personal life. The paintings she made all have that mysterious quality about them. She chose the name Toyen (a reference to the French world ‘citoyen’ which means citizen) because she saw herself as a citizen of the world. In the artistic sense it was true because her Surrealist paintings are even more provocative and daring than even things Dalí was doing around the same time. With a new name came a newfound freedom which is expressed in these artworks. She loved challenging the social norms of the time and these paintings are definitely still provocative today. Some of the themes that she often explores are sexuality, gender, desire, masturbation, liberation. As a surrealist artist she was greatly influenced by psychoanalysis, dreams and the unconscious mind. Indeed, many of her artworks look like scenes from a dream. The impossible becomes possible in Toyen’s paintings.
Fig.1 Erotic composition, 1930
Fig.2 Jednadvacet, 1938
Fig.3 Jednadvacet, 1938
Sketchy
In the sense of artistic connections, Toyen collaborated with the artist and poet artist Jindřich Štyrský and in 1923 the two of them joined the Prague group called Devětsil. From 1925 to 1928 she worked in Paris where she was influenced by the artists there. She also contributed to Štyrský’s literary project ‘Erotická revue’.
In her erotic watercolors surrealism meets and mingles with sensuality. In a way, her artworks are eroticised versions of the illustrations that the French Romantic painter J.J.Grandville was making in the early to mid-19th century. Grandville is considered by some to be the first Surrealist painter. His illustrations are dreamlike, but not erotic usually. Something that Grandville and Toyen’s artworks have in common is that there is no sense of time and space in them. Also, there is no background in her artworks and they are quite sketchy, as if Toyen was quickly capturing her visions, or even dreams, on paper.
Fig.4 Jednadvacet, 1938
Fig.5 Prybrac, 1932
Fig.6 Prybrac, 1932
Fig.7 Prybrac, 1932
Become a Premium member now and read the complete article including more on the gender-fluid subjects in Toyen's work, the portrayal of sexual themes, analysis of Toyen's penis-obsession, numerous additional pics and much more.
Click HERE for an earlier article on Toyen
Let us know your thoughts on Toyen's surreal eroticism in the comment box below...!!
