August 11, 1899: Birth of Jindřich Štyrský, avant-garde artist of European importance
Jindřich Štyrský, a Czech painter, photographer, graphic artist, publisher, writer, poet, and stage designer for the Liberated Theatre, was a man of boundless talent and versatility.
He was a key figure of the interwar avant-garde, known for his uncompromising determination. Early in his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, he had a significant falling out with Professor Max Švabinský, which led him to become disillusioned with Prague, calling it ugly. He interrupted his studies and headed south to the Yugoslavian Adriatic.
A Fateful Meeting with Toyen
On the island of Korčula, he met Maria Čermínová, later known as Toyen. From that moment, they became inseparable. Together, they moved to Paris, where they created a new artistic movement called artificialism, blending painting and poetry—an original Czech contribution to the history of the interwar avant-garde. In the late 1920s, the pair returned to Prague, where Štyrský continued painting and worked as an editor at the Literary Courier.
In the 1928/1929 season, he became the head set designer for the Liberated Theatre. He also illustrated Nezval's The Jewish Cemetery and Lautréamont's Songs of Maldoror. In 1934, alongside Toyen, Bohuslav Brouk, Vítězslav Nezval, and Karel Teige, he co-founded the Surrealist Group in Prague. At the invitation of the Paris Surrealists, they returned to Paris in 1935, where Štyrský fell seriously ill with a hereditary heart disease.
The Trauma of Birth
While on the brink of death, Štyrský painted his most significant work, The Trauma of Birth. The painting features a dark surface with an embryo in a placenta, a leather glove, tree stumps, blood-stained sacks, fish, a cetacean skull, and predator jaws. When he passed away on March 21, 1942, this haunting image hung over his bed, and he left it to his partner, Toyen.
Last year, Sotheby's auction house in Paris put The Trauma of Birth up for auction, estimating its value between 3.5 and 5 million euros. However, the bids fell short, and the auction ended without a sale. Although other paintings by Štyrský have sold for millions, they have not topped the list of the most expensive canvases auctioned.
