TOYEN

TOYEN | 24 Sep 2021 – 13 Feb 2022 | special exhibition
exhibition catalogue | 360 pages | 280 color illustrations | hardcover | german edition

HAMBURGER KUNSTHALLE conceives and presents TOYEN, the first solo exhibition in Germany of the most important and influential Czech artist of the 20th century. The fascinating and multi-layered oeuvre of Toyen (Marie Čermínová, *1902 in Prague, †1980 in Paris) occupies a unique position in the male-dominated art scene of the Czech avant-garde as well as in international Surrealism. Her poetic and provocative images oscillate between reality and imagination, the seductive and the abysmal, and are deeply imprinted on the memory.
The exhibition presents more than 300 exhibits from all creative phases, including about 120 paintings, as well as drawings, illustrations and prints, collages, illustrated books, and a multitude of personal documents and photographs that allow the viewer to relive the extraordinary life in his environment. Through these myriad media, their boundary-pushing combinations of media also become apparent, such as between painting and collage, poetry and illustration, liberal and applied arts.
The exhibition presents selected loans from important European museums, such as the Moderna Museet Stockholm, the Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée d'art moderne de Paris, Musée d'art et d'histoire de Saint-Denis, the National Gallery Prague, the Municipal Museum and the Museum of Arts and Crafts Prague, and a number of Czech museums. In addition, works from numerous French and Czech private collections will be brought together, in large part for the first time ever.
A comprehensive and richly illustrated catalog in German is being published for the first time to accompany the show. It includes numerous essays by internationally renowned experts from the USA, the Czech Republic, France, and Germany. With a wealth of unpublished material, it presents the latest research on Toyen's life and work as well as its context, which also traces her artistic development and her role in international Surrealism. Produced in close collaboration with Prague and Paris, the catalog will also be published in English, Czech and French.