- 136
Jindrich Styrsky
Estimate
15,000 - 25,000 USD
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Description
- Jindrich Styrsky
- untitled (from on the needles of these days)
- Gelatin silver print
ferrotyped, two circular ‘vystaveno v manesu’ stamps, dated 1935 and 1946, and penciled reduction notations on the reverse, 1930s
Provenance
The collection of André Breton, Paris
Calmels Cohen, Paris, André Breton, 42, rue Fontaine, 15 April 2003, Lot 5408
Calmels Cohen, Paris, André Breton, 42, rue Fontaine, 15 April 2003, Lot 5408
Literature
Jindrich Styrsky and Jindrich Heisler, Na jehlách těchto dńi (Prague, 1941; posthumous edition, 1945)
Almanach surréalitse du demi siècle, special number of La Nef, No. 63/64, March/April 1950
Almanach surréalitse du demi siècle, special number of La Nef, No. 63/64, March/April 1950
Catalogue Note
The image offered here was included by Jindrich Styrsky in his epochal book, Na jehlách těchto dńi, or On the Needles of the These Days. The volume combined a series of Styrsky’s mysterious, unpeopled photographs, taken on the streets of Paris and Prague, with text by the poet Jindrich Heisler. Together, they comprised a disquieting metaphor for the uneasiness that permeated Europe in the early days of a second World War. The critic Vince Aletti has called the words and images ‘a Surrealist meditation on war and resistance’ (Book of 101 Books, p. 166).
Styrsky was one of the leading proponents of Surrealism in Prague in the 1930s. A painter, collagist, and graphic artist, he joined the forward-looking Czech artists group Devěstil in 1923. Later in the 1920s, he lived in Paris, where he cemented his ties with the Surrealists and with André Breton, from whose collection this print comes. In 1934, Styrsky became founding member of the Surrealistická skupina v Českoclovensku, the important group of Czech Surrealists.
The first edition of On the Needles of These Days, illustrated with original, tipped-in photographs, was published in a very small edition in Prague in 1941. Strysky died the following year, and his photographs, typically small in format, are rarely seen on the market. Rarer still are large prints of images from the Needles series, such as the one offered here.
Styrsky was one of the leading proponents of Surrealism in Prague in the 1930s. A painter, collagist, and graphic artist, he joined the forward-looking Czech artists group Devěstil in 1923. Later in the 1920s, he lived in Paris, where he cemented his ties with the Surrealists and with André Breton, from whose collection this print comes. In 1934, Styrsky became founding member of the Surrealistická skupina v Českoclovensku, the important group of Czech Surrealists.
The first edition of On the Needles of These Days, illustrated with original, tipped-in photographs, was published in a very small edition in Prague in 1941. Strysky died the following year, and his photographs, typically small in format, are rarely seen on the market. Rarer still are large prints of images from the Needles series, such as the one offered here.