Toyen: The Baroness of Surrealism / Toyen: La baronne subversive du surréalisme (2022) dir. Andrea Sedlackova

If Leonora Carrington was England’s “lost surrealist” the Czech title must surely go to Marie Cermínová, AKA Toyen or “the baroness” to her friends – a name that characterised her remote and somewhat aloof bearing. Like Leonora Carrington, Toyen’s life contained much hardship and loss and the art of both women reflected their intense inner suffering. Toyen knew hunger and poverty and watched those she loved dying around her, one by one. Long considered a marginal figure, it was not until her death in 1980, when her estate was auctioned off, that Toyen’s masterpieces finally saw the light of day. Marie Cerminova, known as Toyen, was born in 1902 in a working-class neighbourhood of Prague. She left her family at the age of 16 guided by her one true wish: she wanted the freedom to create. A portrait of an important figure of the European artistic avant-garde in the 20th century.