Homage to Karl Marx, 1937, oil on canvas

EDITOR'S NOTE

Styrsky omitted the text of this dream from his published dream-book but included several sketches. Marx's head hung from a tree, strung like a bead on a creeper or twig. But the orientation varies and the statue is not in most sketches. So the finished painting was certainly dream-based, but may not be too accurate.

What was the dream about? Styrsky was avant-garde, but as a surrealist he rejected Marxism, for he saw his artistic and spiritual freedom under attack from left, right and middle: Stalinists, Nazis and traditionalists alike. Really, it's no surprise he dreamt of Marx as a disembodied head. And Czechoslovakia's next half-century proved his skepticism right.

SOURCE: Dreamverse by Jindrich Styrsky (Twisted Spoon Press, 2018), p. 91-2; primary source Sny, 1925-1940 ("Dreams, 1925-40") posthumously published (1970). Styrsky titled all his dreams "Dream of..."; I shortened to avoid a logjam under D.

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