An exhibition-cum-story about one of the most intriguing and elusive figures of European surrealism. Born in 1902 as Marie Čermínová, she abandoned her name, roles, and expectations at a young age, adopting the pseudonym Toyen and living and creating beyond the boundaries of gender, convention, and social norms. Together with Jindřich Štyrský, she shaped Czech surrealism, exploring eroticism, the unconscious and freedom as spaces for radical imagination. Her work is characterised by a distinctive, often provocative approach to themes of gender, sexuality and desire – her works combine elaborate symbolism with forms that transcend heteronormative representations of the body.

The exhibition will present almost all of Toyen's illustrated books, her prints, catalogues and posters, which both address erotic themes and constitute a testimony to her artistic response to the rise of fascism. It is the story of a dreamer who deliberately chose to live on the margins of society and for whom art became a tool of emancipation and transgression.

Toyen (born Marie Čermínová; 1902–1980) – Czech painter, draughtsman and illustrator, one of the most important figures of Czech and world surrealism. She adopted the pseudonym Toyen in her youth – probably derived from the French ‘citoyen’ (citizen) – a choice that reflected her desire for an identity that transcended traditional gender boundaries. Toyen referred to herself in the masculine grammatical form in Czech and often dressed in clothes recognised as masculine, which was part of her intentional play with social norms and conventions.

Between 1917 and 1920, she studied at the School of Applied Arts in Prague. She began her artistic career in the 1920s, collaborating with the avant-garde Prague milieu and Jindřich Štyrský, with whom she co-created a movement called artificialism – an attempt to combine abstraction with poetic expression. In 1934, she became one of the founders of the Surrealist group in Prague. During World War II, she lived in the occupied capital, where she helped the poet Jindřich Heisler to hide from the Nazis. In 1947, she emigrated permanently to Paris, where she collaborated and maintained close relations with leading representatives of the international surrealist movement, including André Breton.