Jindřich Štyrský
The Omnipresent Eye II
Artist
Jindřich Štyrský
(1899, Čermná - 1942, Praha), Czech
Original Title
The Omnipresent Eye II
Date1936
Mediumpencil, conté and pastel on paper
Dimensions53 × 66 cm
Classificationsdrawings
Credit LineKunsthalle Praha
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.
This work is part of the series The Omnipresent Eye, which Štýrský created between 1936 and 1937. It stems from his obsessive interest in the theme of eyes, which he engaged with since the second half of the 1920s. Štýrský conceptually liberated the eyes from the human body, loosely placing them on the surface of the canvas without any distinct purpose. The eyes watch us, displaying a variety of expressions which could be human as well as animal. The expressive aesthetic of the painting is further bolstered by the use of frottage, a typical surrealist technique developed by Max Ernst. The series comprised some eleven drawings, which are currently scattered among art collections in the Czech Republic and abroad. The entire set was only displayed once, in 1938, at an exhibition of Štýrský and Toyen at Prague’s Topič Salon. Existing documentations clearly show that each drawing had its own distinct character, meaning they should be considered as autonomous works rather than study sketches.
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.
This work is part of the series The Omnipresent Eye, which Štýrský created between 1936 and 1937. It stems from his obsessive interest in the theme of eyes, which he engaged with since the second half of the 1920s. Štýrský conceptually liberated the eyes from the human body, loosely placing them on the surface of the canvas without any distinct purpose. The eyes watch us, displaying a variety of expressions which could be human as well as animal. The expressive aesthetic of the painting is further bolstered by the use of frottage, a typical surrealist technique developed by Max Ernst. The series comprised some eleven drawings, which are currently scattered among art collections in the Czech Republic and abroad. The entire set was only displayed once, in 1938, at an exhibition of Štýrský and Toyen at Prague’s Topič Salon. Existing documentations clearly show that each drawing had its own distinct character, meaning they should be considered as autonomous works rather than study sketches.
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.
Part of the same series/Part of the same series
