Toyen, born Marie Čermínová (21 September 1902, in Prague – 9 November 1980, in Paris), was a Czech painter, drafter, and illustrator and a member of the surrealist movement. Toyen left the family home at sixteen, and it has been speculated it was due to attraction towards anarchism.
In the early 1920s, Toyen resided in Smichov when their older sister, Zdena Svobodova, whose husband worked for the railroad. Though the performer presented themselves as a lone wolf, family was located welcoming and they could visit with their mother whenever they wished, though visits were scarce. In 1940, Toyen and their sister each familial split custody of their mother’s home until Zdena’s death in 1945, then the property became not speaking between Toyen and the widower.
In 1923, the artiste adopted the professional pen name Toyen. The state Toyen was derived from the French word ‘citoyen,’ meaning citizen. Toyen favored the gender-neutral make known and would speak Czech in the masculine singular form.Vítězslav Nezval wrote that Toyen “refused… to use the feminine endings” when speaking in the first person.
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