Toyen (a pseudonym, probably shortened from French citoyen, citizen), was a Czech surrealist (1902-1980) who often drew and painted dreams though she didn't keep a dreamjournal. Her best friend and frequent collaborator Jindrich Styrsky did; he tried to publish it as Sny (1925-1940) ("Dreams (1925-40"); World War II and his early death aborted this. Toyen got it published in 1970.

Between the world wars, Czechoslovakia (at least Prague) was quite progressive, and Toyen was at the heart of it. She established herself simultaneously as a Surrealist painter, a pioneer of erotica, and as a commercial book illustrator (including kids' books); though I've omitted her book work as nondream, you can get an idea from the ink work in Debris of Dreams below.

Toyen adopted this genderless artname, frequently cross-dressed, and often used male pronouns. Avoided the binary box before the concept of nonbinary existed! She said she was attracted to women; her art suggests a broad pansexuality. She went to Paris and explored its demimonde, sketching the sexual scene with obvious, enthusiastic interest. Participant, or just observer? Toyen didn't kiss and tell.

I see at least four phases in her long career...

1. Erotica (1920s-30s). Diverse, playful, kooky to downright surreal, and everyone seems to be having fun. It sold, but her motive wasn't commercial; Toyen told her friend Annie Le Brun said she had been making erotic sketches as far back as she could remember.
2. Surrealism and dreams (1930s on): many have little girls (or their ghosts, or shadows, or their clothes without the girl inside) in dreamscapes as bleak and lonely as, say, Kay Sage. Some have suggested she was wrestling with childhood abuse; she broke with her family very young and never spoke of them.
3. Nazi invasion, then the Communist takeover (1940-48). Grim. External demons replace the internal.
4. Paris, postwar (1950s-70s). Her playful, sensual early attitude returns, but fused with her surrealist vocabulary of absences and shadows.

RELATED TOPICS: Jindrich Styrsky, her best friend (and dream artist), Dorothea Tanning, surreal dreams, Nancy Price, Walter de la Mare, -- See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

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	DVE PRITELKYNE and PYBRAC: by Toyen; 1925 lifesketch & 1932 sex fantasy In 1925, Toyen sketched Paris's underground sex scene; she learned how to illustrate sex in dreams and fiction... CAUTION: NUDITY
	DREAMER: by Toyen; 1930, reworked 1938; erotic dream sketch Girl on a sofa dreams of erect penises--a whole flock of them... CAUTION: CARTOON NUDITY
	SPÍCÍ (SLEEPER): by Toyen; 1937; dream painting Across a dead land, a little girl wanders--or is she just an empty dress and a wig? She holds a butterfly net as if to catch dreams...
	SEN (DREAM): by Toyen; 1937; dream painting A pink dress smeared with black gunk wanders (without a wearer) across a dead land to a subtly phallic tower...
	DAY AND NIGHT: by Toyen; 1940, dream sketch A yawning little girl floats over a desert full of toy rabbits breeding. But she's mostly whole, just her feet missing. For Toyen, progress!
	THEY TOUCH ME IN SLEEP: by Toyen; 1957?; dream painting At first glance, an abstract. Slowly you notice the lips, tongues, labia and clits. But what are those things on the left? Owl skulls? CAUTION: AMBIGUOUS GENITALIA
	DREAM: by Toyen; 1964; surreal painting Hiding in a corner, vaginal symbols, ghosts and shadows. A leopard crouches, makes velvet paws... CAUTION: SEXUAL THEMES
	DEBRIS OF DREAMS: by Toyen; spring 1966; surreal dream drawings Dream birds, girls, flowers, lips and leopards all fuse and flow together...
	THE NEW WORLD OF LOVE: by Toyen; 1968; surreal nondream painting After reading Fourier's Nouvelle monde amoreux, proposing communes accepting all sexual orientations, Toyen painted male & female as dogs on a grid and Toyen as a ghost-cat hiding in the cracks between... CAUTION: GENDER POLITICS

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