The artist’s original name was Marie Čermínová, known by the nickname Manka. At the age of sixteen she left home and took a job as a labourer in Prague. In the years 1919-1922 she studied decorative painting at the School of Arts and Crafts in Prague (today the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design in Prague [Vysoká škola umělecko-průmyslová (VŠUP)]. During her time there, she stopped using her name and began to exhibit under the gender-neutral pseudonym Toyen. In the summer of 1922, on the Croatian island of Korčula, Toyen met Jindřich Štyrský on the Croatian island of Korčula, and then joined the avant-garde association of the young Czech generation of artists, the artistic and literary association Devětsil. This fateful encounter brought about the artistic partnership between Štyrský and Toyen, which had a lasting impact on the Czech avant-garde, influenced Czech cultural life for decades, and continues to inspire through its free spirit and unconventionality.
In 1925 Štyrský and Toyen travelled together to Paris, where the following year they launched their own -ism, a new artistic movement called Artificialism, an original alternative to the prevailing Surrealism and the rise of abstraction. In the manifesto of this movement, they drew on the theory of Poetism, declaring Artificialism to be the identification of painter and poet, and rejecting Cubism: “Cubism turned reality upside down instead of setting the imagination in motion. (...) Artificialism comes with an inverted perspective. It leaves reality aside and seeks a maximum of imagination.”
Toyen later returned to Paris. Being personally acquainted with André Breton and Paul Eluard, the artist joined a Surrealist group there. In 1934 Toyen was involved in the founding of its Czech counterpart, the Surrealist Group in Czechoslovakia. These encounters changed her artistic image forever. Toyen refused to conform to the expectations of the art market, and took inspiration from the poems of the Surrealist poets and long-time friends Jaroslav Seifert and Vítězslav Nezval.
Toyen referred to themself in the masculine form and dressed like a man. They resented conventions, including family roles, and were associated with the anarchist movement. Although Toyen’s life and work have contributed to the history of feminist art and art criticism, the artist never openly expressed sympathy for feminism, just as they never spoke openly about their sexual orientation. However, Toyen is rightly regarded as a pioneer in women's art, as an artist who portrayed and redefined women's sexuality, desires and identity, and who showed how women can perceive themselves in the modern world.
Their works contain political and social messages, ignoring the sexual mores of the era, some of them even being considered pornographic at the time. On the other hand, Toyen’s book illustrations, which, like their costume jewellery, were created for purely existential reasons, are characterised by their subtle lyricism.
After Surrealism was declared "degenerate art" by the National Socialists, Toyen withdrew from public life. However, the artist did not cease to be a determined opponent of the pernicious Nazi regime, as evidenced by the fact that they hid the young Jewish poet Jindřich Heisler in their small flat in Prague-Zižkov, which would have resulted in the death penalty if discovered. Toyen and Heisler cooperated to create the anti-war cycle Schovej se válko! [Hide, War!]. In view of the ongoing Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia, Toyen decided as early as 1947 to move permanently to Paris, where they once again took part in the activities of the Surrealist group there. In an interview with André Parinaud in 1952, André Breton characterised Toyen in one succinct sentence: "Toyen has, quite independently, created a unique way of grasping phenomena".
The dream-like ingenuity of Toyen's early works, with elements inspired by nature, is represented in this exhibition by the painting Potápěč [Diver] (1926), one of the most characteristic works of Artificialism. The same qualities are reflected in the works of Radka Bodzewicz. Krištof Kintera emphasises the topicality of the themes taken up by Toyen: "They were ahead of their time. In Toyen we can see the changing of identities, of gender, of everything that is going on today.” Martin Mainer also expresses his admiration for Toyen.
DIVER, 1925
DREAM, 1937
A SAD DAY, 1942
b. 1902 in Prague
d. 1980 in Paris