Poster, Toyen, The Myth of Light

Dimensions: 50 x 70 cm

Toyen was born in Prague in 1902 as Marie Cermínová. During the 1920s she adopted the gender-neutral artist name "Toyen", which refers to the French citoyen (citizen). In the interwar period she participated in the activities of the surrealist movement and international exhibitions in both Prague and Paris, where she also moved after the end of World War II. Despite her relevance, Toyen has been relatively marginalized in the canonical writing of art history. With her deeply queer and erotic works, Toyen emerges as a key figure in contemporary studies of the surrealist movement.

Toyen hid the young poet Jindrich Heisler in his bathroom, it is his shadow that is depicted against the door in the work The Myth of Light (1946). Toyen told how much Jindrich Heisler loved light and how much he suffered from never being able to go out and enjoy it for several years.

The motif on this poster is a work of art in the collection of Moderna Museet.

Item no.: MOM93

© Toyen/Image Copyright 2018. Moderna Museet, Sweden