Toyen - Léta erotická – Sedláčková Andrea (2025)

In this continuation of the successful book Toyen: The First Lady of Surrealism, Andrea Sedláčková offers a serious yet engaging account of a distinctive part of Toyen’s work that remained largely hidden from the public for a long time: her erotic art from 1921 to 1938. Through almost detective-like research, she has uncovered new information in archives, period correspondence, memoirs and police files, placing the artist’s works with their direct erotic themes in the context of her personal and social life. Toyen’s erotic drawings were lyrical as well as dramatic, and sometimes humorous. In their time they were often considered pornographic, whereas today they are unequivocally regarded as works of art. Toyen avoided the vulgar obscenity associated with pornography, although some of her drawings are still unsuitable for prudish eyes. Andrea Sedláčková devotes much more attention here than in the previous book to the life and work of Toyen’s friend and artistic companion Jindřich Štyrský. Considerable space is also given to the writer and psychoanalyst Bohuslav Brouk, while other figures from Toyen’s circle also appear, including Vítězslav Nezval, Jaroslav Seifert and František Halas. Readers will also encounter many names and period erotic books, often for the first time, and may be surprised by the variety of erotic art of the era. The author examines whether Toyen’s erotic works can be understood as reflections of the artist’s own sexuality or even sexual orientation, and where she found inspiration for her illustrations. Thoroughly researched and highly readable, the book includes a detailed list of source materials and bibliographic information on the titles discussed, as well as erotic illustrations, many unique and previously unpublished photographs, and dozens of colour reproductions of paintings by Toyen and Štyrský.