Jindřich Štyrský
Aquarium
Artist
Jindřich Štyrský
(1899, Čermná - 1942, Praha), Czech
Original Title
Akvárium
Date1927
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensions96 × 64 cm
Classifications
paintings
Credit LineKunsthalle Praha
Exhibition
1918-1938: První republika
DescriptionJindřich Štyrský was a prominent Czech modernist artist with a breadth of talent. He primarily focused on painting and collage, but also engaged with photography, poetry, scenography, and art theory. Alongside Toyen (Marie Čermínová) he was one of the most important figures of the Czech interwar avantgarde. Štyrský’s early work synthesized influences of cubism, purism, and Primitivism. In 1923, Štyrský and Toyen both joined the art group Devětsil, which comprised progressive artists, writers, photographers, musicians, and critics. The group’s discourse was dominated by Poetism, a specific Czech style developed by Vítězslav Nezval and Karel Tiege. The tenets of Poetism were an enchantment with the surrounding world and a fusion of art and life—accordingly, its most prominent artform was pictorial poetry, commonly based on a fusion of watercolor and collage. While living in Paris between 1925 and 1928, Štyrský and Toyen founded their own artistic movement, termed artificialism, which was a novel contribution to the contemporary landscape of painting. artificialism was primarily based on formal experimentation and a distinctive poetic, imaginative sensitivity which they both employed in their abstraction of real-world motifs. The time spent in Paris also awakened Štyrský’s interest in documenting dreams through writing and drawing. Beginning in the late 1920s, his style shifted toward a heavier imaginativeness evidencing its links to Parisian surrealism. Štyrský’s transition from artificialism to surrealism can also be seen as an ideological development. While artificialism was a distinctly individualist style focused on questions of form and composition, surrealism employed techniques and methods drawing on depth psychology and also maintained a strong political dimension. Štyrský’s work was oriented toward surrealism up until his untimely death. During this period, alongside painting, he also extensively worked with photography and color collage.
Štryský’s painting Aquarium (1927) was shown at a joint exhibition with Toyen at the Parisian Galerie d´Art Contemporain in 1926. However, the following year he decided to rework the piece, incorporating new elements of artificialism. Artificialism was the artistic style which Štyrský and Toyen developed during their time in Paris, conceived in reaction to the tendencies of surrealist and abstract art. They defined artificialism as an elaboration of poetry through painting, thus unmistakably linking it to the contemporary poetist orientation of the Devětsil art group, which had, however, initially sought a fusion of mediums and the replacement of painting with collage. The original constructive, firmly defined composition displays influences of cubism and its fragmentation of reality. The new artificialist influence is evidenced by the top layer of light paint, applied using a technique of spraying and partially covering the surface, thus demonstrating a new artistic orientation toward formal experimentation and an imaginative engagement with the abstracted beauty of the mysterious undersea realm.
Jindřich Štyrský (1899, Čermná - 1942, Prague) studied under Jakub Obrovský and Karel Krattner at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague from 1920 to 1923. In 1922, he met Marie Čermínová, who was known in the art scene under her pseudonym Toyen. In 1923, Štyrský joined the art group Devětsil and also partook in the legendary exhibition Bazaar of Modern Art, where young artists of the upcoming generation displayed artworks with primitivist and naivist tendencies as well as several collective readymades, evidencing influences of Dadaism. From 1925 to 1928, Štyrský and Toyen lived in Paris. During this time, they developed their individualized style known as artificialism, presenting it at several exhibitions. Between 1928 and 1929, Štyrský was director of the Liberated Theatre. He also explored typography, book illustration, and book cover design. From 1930 to 1933, he published the Erotic Review, conceived as a bibliophilic private publication focused on the erotic and its relation to art and literature. He also engaged with the erotic in his photocollages from this time, for instance in his famous work Emily Comes to Me in a Dream. From the 1930s, Štyrský’s work shifted toward surrealist tendencies. In 1932, he took part in the international exhibition Poetry 32, organized in Prague by the Mánes Union of Fine Arts. The exhibition included works by Hans Arp, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, Emil Filla, Alberto Giacometti, Giorgio de Chirico, Paul Klee, Toyen, and Joan Miró. As a result of his participation in the exhibition, he was accepted into the Mánes Union in 1933. The following year, Štyrský, Toyen, and Vítězslav Nezval became founding members of the Surrealist Group in Czechoslovakia, which maintained close ties to the Surrealist Group in Paris. In 1935, Štyrský accepted an invitation from the French surrealists to visit them in Paris. However, during the trip he fell severely ill and never fully recovered. With the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939, surrealism became persecuted and Štyrský was forced to remove himself from the public eye. In the same year, two of his watercolors were included in the New York City-based exhibition Art of Tomorrow, which presented works from the Solomon R. Guggenheim collection. Štyrský died in Prague at the age of 42, following a monthslong illness. In 1946, the Mánes Union of Fine Arts held a posthumous exhibition of his work. The most recent exhibition mapping the constituent chapters of his career was hosted at the Prague City Gallery in 2007.
Štryský’s painting Aquarium (1927) was shown at a joint exhibition with Toyen at the Parisian Galerie d´Art Contemporain in 1926. However, the following year he decided to rework the piece, incorporating new elements of artificialism. Artificialism was the artistic style which Štyrský and Toyen developed during their time in Paris, conceived in reaction to the tendencies of surrealist and abstract art. They defined artificialism as an elaboration of poetry through painting, thus unmistakably linking it to the contemporary poetist orientation of the Devětsil art group, which had, however, initially sought a fusion of mediums and the replacement of painting with collage. The original constructive, firmly defined composition displays influences of cubism and its fragmentation of reality. The new artificialist influence is evidenced by the top layer of light paint, applied using a technique of spraying and partially covering the surface, thus demonstrating a new artistic orientation toward formal experimentation and an imaginative engagement with the abstracted beauty of the mysterious undersea realm.
Jindřich Štyrský (1899, Čermná - 1942, Prague) studied under Jakub Obrovský and Karel Krattner at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague from 1920 to 1923. In 1922, he met Marie Čermínová, who was known in the art scene under her pseudonym Toyen. In 1923, Štyrský joined the art group Devětsil and also partook in the legendary exhibition Bazaar of Modern Art, where young artists of the upcoming generation displayed artworks with primitivist and naivist tendencies as well as several collective readymades, evidencing influences of Dadaism. From 1925 to 1928, Štyrský and Toyen lived in Paris. During this time, they developed their individualized style known as artificialism, presenting it at several exhibitions. Between 1928 and 1929, Štyrský was director of the Liberated Theatre. He also explored typography, book illustration, and book cover design. From 1930 to 1933, he published the Erotic Review, conceived as a bibliophilic private publication focused on the erotic and its relation to art and literature. He also engaged with the erotic in his photocollages from this time, for instance in his famous work Emily Comes to Me in a Dream. From the 1930s, Štyrský’s work shifted toward surrealist tendencies. In 1932, he took part in the international exhibition Poetry 32, organized in Prague by the Mánes Union of Fine Arts. The exhibition included works by Hans Arp, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, Emil Filla, Alberto Giacometti, Giorgio de Chirico, Paul Klee, Toyen, and Joan Miró. As a result of his participation in the exhibition, he was accepted into the Mánes Union in 1933. The following year, Štyrský, Toyen, and Vítězslav Nezval became founding members of the Surrealist Group in Czechoslovakia, which maintained close ties to the Surrealist Group in Paris. In 1935, Štyrský accepted an invitation from the French surrealists to visit them in Paris. However, during the trip he fell severely ill and never fully recovered. With the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939, surrealism became persecuted and Štyrský was forced to remove himself from the public eye. In the same year, two of his watercolors were included in the New York City-based exhibition Art of Tomorrow, which presented works from the Solomon R. Guggenheim collection. Štyrský died in Prague at the age of 42, following a monthslong illness. In 1946, the Mánes Union of Fine Arts held a posthumous exhibition of his work. The most recent exhibition mapping the constituent chapters of his career was hosted at the Prague City Gallery in 2007.
