Certified graphic print, 47.7 x 66.5 cm. Numbered. Certificate, BFK RIVES handmade paper. Signed bottom right Toyen. Embossed stamp: Solema s.p.a., Grafiart Edition.
About the artist:
Toyen, née Marie Čermínová (1902 – 1980), was a Czech painter and graphic artist, one of the most significant figures in Czech surrealism – although she spent most of her life in Paris. She was an independent and unique artist and woman in both Czech and world art of the 20th century. She defied societal conventions with her bohemian lifestyle, and through her work, she opposed philistinism and hypocrisy in art and society. She refused to accept the prevailing concept of a woman's role, considering herself equal to men, not only in her art but also in her personal life. Her work is characterized by originality and precise execution. Her lifelong friendship with the painter, writer, and photographer Jindřich Štyrský became very important to her. Together, they joined the avant-garde association of the young Czech generation, the Umělecký svaz Devětsil (Devětsil Art Union).
Toyen lived for her art; avant-garde art was a means for her to free herself from the conventions of contemporary life. She was also a free spirit in her perception of sexuality, to which she adopted a very open and unconventional approach. She began painting her erotic drawings and paintings in the second half of the 1920s, a time when Czech society considered such art to be decadent pornography.
