Databáze uměleckých výstav v českých zemích 1820 – 1950

At their first solo exhibition in Czechoslovakia, held in 1928 at the Aventinum Mansard,  Jindřich Štyrský and Toyen introduced the Prague public to a new artistic trend, Artificialism, which they created during their multiyear sojourn in Paris. Their intention was to distinguish themselves from both Abstraction and Surrealism. They first introduced their new trend to the Parisian public: in October 1926 in the rue Barbès studio, in what was then the Montrouge suburb, and subsequently at Galerie d‘Art Contemporain (November 27 –  December 10, 1926) with a catalogue (lacking an introduction) and one year later at the Galerie Vavin (December 29, 1927 – January 12, 1928) with a catalogue containing an introduction by Philippe Soupault, reprinted in Paris Soir and, in two different Czech translations, in the magazines Rozpravy Aventina and ReD. Throughout the year 1927, Štyrský and Toyen promoted Artificialism through their texts and reproductions of paintings published in the Czech avant-garde press – the revue Fronta, the introductory issue of ReD, and Horizont [Štyrský 2007, pp. 15–22].

While still living in Paris, Štyrský and Toyen organized the Prague exhibition in March 1928. On the recommendation of Karel Teige, the leader of Devětsil, they contacted Otakar Štorch-Marien, who immediately promised that the Aventinum Mansard would be available for them in June. This gallery, established in the late 1920s by Štorch-Marien and the painter František Muzika as an elegant Paris-style exhibition space, hosted both Devětsil members and the representatives of prewar avant-garde and modernism. Štyrský and Toyen returned to Prague in April (Štyrský stayed while Toyen went back to Paris on June 18, returning to Prague permanently in January 1929). The painters presented a set of twenty-one paintings each, all created between 1926 and 1927. Seven artworks came from private collections and the rest were for sale, with prices ranging between 1.200 CZK and 3.000 CZK.

The opening in the Aventinum Mansard took place on Friday June 1 before noon. Štyrský read his lecture entitled Básník (The Poet), in which he strictly rejected Surrealism, regarding it as too literary and formally historicizing [Štyrský 2007, pp. 23–26]. The poet Vítězslav Nezval, the artists' close friend, recited poems called Toyen and Štyrský. Both Štyrský's text and Nezval's poems, accompanied by Muzika's caricatures, were featured on the title page of the journal Rozpravy Aventina. The same issue contained the double page with reproductions of paintings by Štyrský and Toyen from the exhibition.

The cover of the catalogue featured Štyrský's painting Harar and Toyen's Tea House (the stereoplate came from the journal  ReD, which reproduced these paintings in its April 1928 issue).  Karel Teige wrote the introduction entitled Výstava artificielismu (Artificialist Exhibition). The same text, with only the first sentence modified, then appeared under the title Ultrafialové obrazy, čili artificielismus (Ultraviolet Paintings or Artificialism) in the ninth, June issue of the first volume of ReD and was also published separately as Manifesty poetismu (The Poetism Manifestos). At the beginning of the ReD version of this article, Teige stated that Artificialism shared a point of departure with Poetism and the two were deeply related. Vítězslav Nezval was of the same opinion. In his article Abstraktivismus, nadrealismus, artificielismus (Abstractivism, Surrealism, Artificialism), subtitled Aktuelní poznámky k výstavám Josefa Šímy a Štyrského s Toyen (Relevant Remarks on Josef Šíma, Štyrský and Toyen Exhibitions) and published in Kmen, Teige placed Artificialism in the broader context of European art. He outlined the polarity between Artificialism, which “lives in the ultraviolet world of supra-consciousness,” in which a creation is not a record of mental automatism but conscious art, a surrealism which, in an effort to reproduce unconscious events as faithfully as possible, “abandoned the white light of the intellect, switching on the infrared glow under the threshold of consciousness” [Teige 1928, p. 122].

Josef Čapek was the most appreciative reviewer of Štyrský's and Toyen's art outside the Devětsil circle. In his article for Lidové noviny, he praised their “keen invention” and refined technique: “what they bring is no universal brew from the Parisian kitchen, ... it is truly a piece of unique and original contribution to the competition of post-Cubist concepts and trends” [Čapek 1999, p. 109]. In contrast, František Kovárna, the new editor-in-chief of Volné směry, was quite skeptical. Having had various polemics with Devětsil and Teige in particular [Koukal 2013, p. 159], Kovárna criticized Artificialism for “removing shape and space,” and the rejection of “illusionist painting” which, in his view, led to “artisanal decorativism,” turning paintings into flat decoration, or wallpaper [Kovárna 1928].

These Artificialist paintings and the March and April 1928 exhibitions of Josef Šíma's works in the Aventinum Mansard presented a new phase in the evolution of Devětsil’s painting styles. Štyrský, Toyen and Šíma had several exhibitions at the Aventinum Mansard in the late 1920s, and the gallery briefly served as the main venue for the Czech avant-garde.

Lenka Bydžovská

Works Cited

Čapek 1999: Josef Čapek, Méně výstav a více umění, ed. Pavla Pečinková, Prague 1999

Koukal 2013: Jiří Koukal, František Kovárna (1905–1952), in: František Kovárna, Uměleckohistorické texty z pozůstalosti, ed. Jiří Koukal – Martina Flekačová, Prague 2013, pp. 156–172

Kovárna 1928: -rna [František Kovárna], Štýrský a Toyen, Volné směry XXVI, 1928–1929, no. 2, 20. 6. 1928, p. 66

Štyrský 2007: Jindřich Štyrský, Texty, ed. Karel Srp – Lenka Bydžovská, Prague 2007

Teige 1928: Karel Teige, Abstraktivismus, nadrealismus, artificielismus (Aktuelní poznámky k výstavám Josefa Šímy a Štyrského & Toyen v Aventinské mansardě, v Praze, na jaře 1928), Kmen II, 1928–1929, no. 6, červen 1928, pp. 120–123

Further Reading

Lenka Bydžovská, Aventinská mansarda, in: Karel Srp (ed.), Aventinská mansarda. Otakar Štorch-Marien a výtvarné umění (ex. cat., Galerie hlavního města Prahy), Prague 1990, pp. 57–79

Lenka Bydžovská – Karel Srp, Štyrský, Toyen: Artificialismus (kat. výst.), Východočeská galerie Pardubice 1992

Lenka Bydžovská – Karel Srp, Jindřich Štyrský, Prague 2007, pp. 97–136, 506

Vítězslav Nezval – Karel Teige, Štyrský a Toyen, Prague 1938

Karel Srp, Toyen, Prague 2000, pp. 43–77

František Šmejkal, Artificialismus, Výtvarné umění  XVI, 1966, pp. 381–391

František Šmejkal – Věra Linhartová, Štyrský a Toyen (exh. cat.), Moravská galerie v Brně – SVU Mánes, Prague 1966

Otakar Štorch-Marien, Ohňostroj, Prague 1992 (second edition), pp. 156–158

Karel Teige, Ultrafialové obrazy, čili artificielismus, ReD I, 1927–1928, no. 9, [June] 1928, pp. 315–317, in: idem, Svět stavby a básně. Studie z dvacátých let, ed. Jiří Brabec – Vratislav Effenberger – Květoslav Chvatík – Robert Kalivoda, Prague 1966, pp. 318–322 

Josef Vojvodík, Ultrafialové obrazy, in:  Josef Vojvodík – Jan Wiendl (edd.), Heslář české avantgardy, Prague 2011, pp. 379–391