The son of a successful factory owner of Jewish ancestry, Jindřich Heisler undertook vocational training at the chemical trade school in Banská Štiavnica/Schemnitz [now in Slovakia]. Soon he was employed in the family business, but after his father's early death, he decided to move from his home town of Chrást to Prague. His friends Jindřich Štyrský and Toyen supported him in his interest in art and literature. Under their influence, he became a member of the Surrealist Group. They also collaborated. In association with Toyen, he published his first collections of poems in 1939, Přízraky pouště [Ghosts of the Desert] and Jen poštolky chčí klidně na desatero [Only kestrels piss quietly on the Ten Commandments]. Their cooperation continued even after the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the National Socialists, when Heisler, as a Jew, was compelled to hide in Toyen's Prague flat for the entire duration of the war.
After the Second World War, the series Střelnice [Shooting Range] and Schovej se válko! [Hide, War!] were published, in which Toyen's drawings were combined with Heisler's Surrealist poems. In March 1947, they both travelled to Paris to take part in the International Exhibition of Surrealism. The Prague iteration of this exhibition took place in Topič's Salon in November-December 1947. However, neither Jindřich Heisler nor Toyen, with whom he lived in Paris, ever returned to Czechoslovakia, as they were in danger when the Communist regime came to power.
Heisler became friends with André Breton and Benjamin Péret, and he was involved in the publication of Surrealist journals and anthologies. Breton also put him in touch with the
the Maeght Gallery, whose owner supported Heisler financially, which enabled him to continue working on his collages.
Jindřich Heisler died in 1953 in Paris, without any recognition ever being given to his literary or artistic work in socialist Czechoslovakia. It was not until 1999 that his poetry was published in a prestigious edition. Jindřich Heisler is a characteristic example of the close artistic contacts between Prague and Paris, and he was a personality who embedded Czech Surrealism in an international context.
Surrealism is a powerful source of inspiration for Jakub Nepraš, also because Jan Švankmajer is still associated with it.
I HAVE NEVER BEEN THERE, 1939
b. 1914 in Chrast u Chrudimě, Kingdom of Bohemia
d. 1953 in Paris
I Have Never Been There
Hand-rolled cigarettes stood in the corner
and it was dark there
because the dry biscuits have such small windows
Donkeys were chewing Turkish delight
gulping it down by the packet
even with the pistols hiding inside
A coconut woman was there
dancing and swallowing screws
and when she took a sip
the porthole opened
and sleep oozed out of it
like green smoke.
(from: Surrealism Editions, Heisler and Toyen,
From the Strongholds of Sleep: Materialized Poems, 1939)
Übersetzung nach Jindřich Heisler, Surrealism under Pressure, 1938-1953. Katalog der Ausstellung vom 31. März bis 1. Juli 2012 im Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute Chicago 2012