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A true 20th-century visionary

Decades after his death, Štyrský remains compellingly modern
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By Tony Ozuna
For The Prague Post
June 13th, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
An entire relationship in a single painting: the symbolic "Majakovsky's Waistcoat."
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Jindřich Štyrský

at Prague City Gallery–House at the Stone Bell Ends Sept. 9. Staroměstské nám. 13, Prague 1–Old Town. Open Tues.–Sun. 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

When Jindřich Štyrský (1899–1942) had his first posthumous retrospective exhibition in 1946, the organizer of the show, his influential friend Karel Teige, said it shouldn’t be called a retrospective, but a perspective — a view to the future. Six decades later, some of the works in Štyrský’s current retrospective at the House at the Stone Bell could still fill Teige’s bold claim.
Štyrský ranks among the most important Czech artists from the interwar period. In his time, he was also one of the most active modern artists in Europe.
As a student in 1922 (he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague from 1920 to ’24), Štyrský was traveling with a friend in Yugoslavia when he met Marie Čermínová, a young Czech painter who would later change her name to Toyen. Toyen and Štyrský became lifelong companions, and, influencing and inspiring one another, became two of the most unique Czech artists of the 20th century.
The exhibit begins with works from this early period, mostly Cubist landscapes and figures with traces of Expressionism, Primitivism and Purism. In 1923, Štyrský and Toyen joined the avant-garde group Devětsil, which was led by Teige. It was during this period that Štyrský’s work transformed into a merging of painting and poetry.
Throughout his career, Štyrský was not only a painter but an experimental graphic artist, stage designer, critic and avant-garde poet. These other forms of art from his early period, such as his “picture poems,” are best appreciated in the publications by Devětsil, including Disk, Pasmo and ReD (Revue Devětsilu), which are all on display.
The first two rooms of the exhibit, which radiate in mainly light pastel colors, are dedicated to Artificialism, a contribution to European modern art that was developed by Štyrský and Toyen while they lived together in Paris in 1925 to ’28.
While Artificialism asserted first and foremost the union of poetry and painting, the works on display are mainly abstract landscapes. The most striking ones combine aspects of Cubism and Orientalism, such as Japanese Garden (Chinese Landscape).
Among the Artificialist paintings is one untitled abstract work, painted in shades of orange with graffiti scribbles in black and gray. This painting would not only fit in at any contemporary art show today, it would be among the best — the true mark of a visionary.
Just beyond this section, there is a special room with Štyrský’s scandalous and intriguing works from 1928–30. The best of these erotic works are highly stylized collages combining drawings and photomontages to accompany a book of his own text, Emily Comes to Me in My Dream (1933), with images such as orgies over coffins, naked babies marching below a fornicating couple, penises in quicksand and couples having sex while floating in outer space.
The last room on the first floor is devoted to Štyrský’s Surrealistic paintings, exploding in dream imagery with unusual color combinations and forms. One of his largest works, Painting V (1932) — known most of all for its hermaphrodite figure in the foreground — is likely connected to Toyen and their unusual relationship.
The second floor of the exhibit begins with remarkable Surrealistic photographs (1934–35), mainly shots of shop display windows, fairground attractions and funeral parlors.
The next room, the “Portable Cabinet” (1934), contains some of the show’s strongest works. It includes dozens of collages using modern advertising and classical drawings that were made for the first exhibit of the Surrealists Group. Here, Štyrský’s humor, wit and aesthetics are in full form: The collages abound in holy icons, naked body parts and grotesque nonsense.
Štyrský’s later paintings and drawings are darker in theme and color, reflecting the unsettling visions from his subconscious. There is an uncanny room full of eyes from his “Packs of Eyes” series of drawings (1936–41) and Trauma of Birth (1936), an important painting marking his exploration of the relationship between nature and the human body, with embryos and body parts beside strange fruit and vegetables.
The final room has a painting loaded with symbolism but more direct than any of his other works. Majakovsky’s Waistcoat (1939) shows a woman in a negligee and stockings behind a beige curtain, a man in a trench coat behind a gray curtain, and a red vest hung on a tree with a bullet hole at the heart. On the vest are the words: “This part of my life is dedicated to Toyen.”
Toyen, who lived until 1980, was Štyrský’s soul mate. She inspired and complemented him as both a muse and an artistic rival. And this painting with a poem best expresses his love and struggle, or perhaps their eternal struggle, for an unobtainable union, with death always at the edge.

Tony Ozuna can be reached at features@praguepost.com


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