(1902-1980)
Toyen, painter. The first lady of the Czech interwar avant-garde. Her work includes “naive” images drawing from Czech reality and gloomy scenes inspired by war. Together with the artist Jindřich Štyrský, they established their own artistic direction, artificialism, and later became the most notable advocates of Czech surrealist art. Her work often betrays an erotic accent, for example The Pillow with a scene from a brothel or the provocative Paradise of Blacks caused a great uproar in its time. The latter work dated 1925 was recently auctioned for the equivalent of more than 1,3 million U.S. dollars. In addition to art, Toyen was also famous for her non-conformist views. She rejected her civil name, cancelled her family ties and denied the traditional female role. She dressed in men’s clothes, spoke of herself as a man and sympathized with the anarchist movement. After World War II, out of fear of the emerging communism, she moved permanently to Paris, where she died on 9 November 1980.