Toyen and Josef Sima exhibition | Moderna gallery

Toyen and Josef Sima | Prague - Moderna gallery | 19/02 - 05/04/09

After some time, there is an exhibition of Toyen (Marie Čermínová, 1902–1980) and Josef Šíma (1891–1971) to present two artists who ranked to the most outstanding personalities that established the form of the 20th-century Czech art. Almost unbelievably, their paths intersected in various periods no matter what steps they might have taken. The first encounter of the two on the artistic scene occurred during the 1920s when they exhibited with the art group Devětsil [Butterbur]. Josef Šíma was the first to take off to France, settling there for good in 1922. Toyen left for Paris somewhat later, in 1925, to work with painter Jindřich Štyrský a couple of years, and settled in Paris only as late as in 1947. Both Toyen and Šíma, however, were captivated by the arriving artistic trend, Surrealism, and its probes to the deep layers of human psyche. The years of 1925, 1929 and 1932 brought Toyen and Šíma together at several group exhibitions: first at the international show “L’Art d’aujourd’hu”, organized in the Parisian Salle de la Ville, second at the exhibition of the contemporary Czech painting, held in the Prague gallery Aventine Garret, and, finally, at the 1932 extensive exhibition of painting and sculpture by the leading representatives of the European Surrealist movement, entitled “Poetry 1932” and organized by the Prague Mánes Association of Fine Artists (participating artists from abroad included J. Arp, S. Dalí, M. Ernst, Chirico, P. Klee, A. Masson, J. Miró, and I.Tanguy, while the Czech side was represented by 11 artists headed by Toyen, J. Šíma and J. Štyrský). In 1935 Josef Šíma escorted André Breton and Paul Eduard to Prague where Toyen and Vítězslav Nezval had founded the Surrealist Group a year before. Here, again, we can see the close connection between the two artists, provided by the significant representative of the world Surrealism, André Breton. Toyen became member of Breton’s Surrealist group after 1947. The exhibition activities of Toyen and Šíma occured in the most famous galleries of Paris, and their ultimate works, characteristic of extraordinary spiritual insight and painting refinement, became significant not only for Czechoslovak and Czech fine arts but also for the 20th fine art in general. The present exhibition summarizes works by Toyen and Šíma that date from 1953 to 1974. It displays Šíma’s paintings from the 1960s as, for example, the Islands (1961), Orpheus (1960), and Milan Plains (1963). It also presents one of the fundamental pillars of Toyen’s post-war painting oeuvre, As the Law Felt Silent (1969). The aim of the curators is to present a complex picture of the work of the two artists not only via their paintings. It also underlines the significance of their prints, displaying rare, hand-colored works, series and bibliophile’s items as, for example, Tower Well – Fragments of Dreams (1967), Sacrilegious Forest (1970), Target Range (1973), and Consecration and Desecration of Love (1960). The official opening of the exhibition is on 18 February 2009 on 6:30 p.m. (opening speech Karel Srp). The exhibition runs to 5 April 2009. GALERIE MODERNA Prague 1 – New Town Masarykovo Embankment 24 phone: +420 222 520 252 e-mail: galeriemoderna@seznam.cz mail@galeriemoderna.cz www.galeriemoderna.cz Opening hours: daily from 10 a.m. to 12 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Entrance fee: optional

Anna a Jerry Kozovi
Ron Arad
M.S. Bastian
Jiří Belda
Zdeněk Janošec Benda
Jakub Berdych
David Böhm
Filomena Borecká
Erika Bornová
Václav Boštík
Cyril Bouda
Vladimír Boudník
Ronan a Erwan Bouroullec
Jiří Bradáček
Pavel Brázda
Veronika Bromová
Jan Brož
Tomáš Brzoň
Rudolf Burda
Maria Burešová
Adam a Samuel Ciglerovi
Andrea Cihlářová
Michal Cimala
Tomáš Císařovský
Jan Čapek
Josef Čapek
Jana Černá
Jiří Černoch
Jiří David
Vladimír David
Sonia Delaunay
Hugo Demartini
Mark Dion
Stanislav Diviš
Markéta Dlouhá Márová
Jiri Georg Dokoupil
Libor Doležal
Veronika Drahotová
Otto Eckert
Ondřej Elfmark
Max Ernst
Libor Fára
Gabina Fárová
Karen Feldman
Robert Filliou
František Foltýn
Jitka Forejtová
Roman Franta
Tereza Froňková
Michal Gabriel
Pavla Gajdošíková
Ladislava Gažiová
Martin Gerboc
Otto Gutfreund
Jindřich Halabala
Peter Harach
Martin Hašek
Zbyněk Havlín
Tomáš Hlavina
Josef Hoffmann
Vladimír Houdek
Zbyněk Hřivnáč
Pavel Humhal
Charles & Ray Eames
Martina Chloupa
Vlastislav Janáček
Martin Janecký
Věra Janoušková
Jan Jaroš
Jaroslav Ježek
Hella Jongerius
Mariana Jůdová
Jaroslav Juřica
Irena Jůzová
Jan Kaláb
Jiří (Georg) Kars
Krištof Kintera
Martin Kocourek
Václav Kočí
Jiří Kolář
Lucie Koldová
Stanislav Kolíbal
Jan Konůpek
Vladimír Kopecký
Antonín Kopp
Pavel Kopřiva
Karolína Kopřivová
Jiří Kovanda
Jerry Koza
Anna Kozová
Petr Králík
Rudolf Kremlička
Václav Krůček
Barbora Křivská
Jan Kubíček
Bohumil Kubišta
Alena Kučerová
František Kupka
Petr Kvíčala
Zuzana Kynčlová
Tomáš Lahoda
Hanuš Lamr
Kamil Lhoták
Zdeněk Lhotský
Silvie Luběnová
Petr Lysáček
Oto Macek
Oto Macek
Martin Mainer
Karel Malich
Jindřich Marek
Blažena Martiníková
Ivana Mašitová
Jiří Matějů
František Matoušek
Jiří Matoušek
Jan Merta
Lidia Meszaroszová
Jitka Mikulicová
Joan Miró
Václav Miškovský
Václav Miškovský
Jasper Morrison
George Nelson
Miloš Nemec
Petr Nikl
Filip Nízký
Isamu Noguchi
Ivona Nováková
Martin Nytra
Claes Oldenburg
Olgoj Chorchoj
Petra Ondreičková
Pasta Oner
Bet Orten
Jan Padrnos
Dagmar Pánková
Verner Panton
Petr Pastrňák
Petr Pavlík
Milan Pekař
Jiří Pelcl
A.R. Penck
Daniel Piršč
Petr Písařík
Daniel Pitín
PODEBAL
Anna Polanská
Míla Preslová
Antonín Procházka
Janja Prokić
Jean Prouvé
Ondřej Přibyl
Pavel Příkaský
Qubus Design Studio
Pravoslav Rada
Eva Růžičková
Niki Saint Phalle
Lada Semecká
Tereza Severová
Michal Singer
Vladimír Skrepl
Jitka Skuhravá
Leoš Smejkal
Tomáš Smetana
Kateřina Smolíková
Miloslav Smutný
Petra Steinerová
Filip Streit
Antotnín Střížek
Jiří Surůvka
Jan Svoboda
Zdeněk Sýkora
Roman Šedina
Jan Šerých
Michal Šilhán
Dušan Šimánek
Adriena Šimotová
Jiří Šín
Klára Šípková
Václav Špála
Jakub Špaňhel
Ivan Štěpán
René Šulc
Tereza Talichová
František Tichý
Vladimír Tichý
Tobyšlo
Miloš Urbásek
Karel Vaca
Šimon Vahala
Dana Vachtová
Maarten Van Severen
Maxim Velčovský
František Vízner
Ludmila Vojířová
Mark Wallinger
Andy Warhol
Zdeněk Vacek & Daniel Pošta
Martin Zet
Jan Zrzavý
Josef Žáček
Vladimír Žák
Martin Žampach