LONDON.- On 12 November 2014 in London,
Sotheby's will present Czech Avant-Garde Art from the Roy & Mary Cullen Collection. Adrian Biddell, Senior Director, Sotheby’s 19th Century European Paintings Department, describes the Roy & Mary Cullen Collection, as “an extraordinary collecting achievement. Formed with a combination of passion and patience, it focuses on the rich and compelling story of Czech Avant-Garde art between the First and Second World Wars as told by the artists, illustrators, photographers and writers of the time. The paintings, works on paper, prints and books capture the visual, literary and intellectual ideas that flourished in Prague and Paris during this period. Sotheby’s sale of the Hascoe Collection of Czech Modern Art in London in June 2011 revealed enormous interest in the market for Czech art and realised more than double the pre-sale estimate. The Roy & Mary Cullen Collection presents the next chapter in Czech art, specifically Czech Surrealism between the wars.” Comprising approximately 120 lots, the Roy & Mary Cullen Collection is expected to bring in the region of £1.7 million.
The Formation of The Roy & Mary Cullen Collection
Speaking about the Collection, Mary Cullen said: “Inspired by the pioneering exhibition, ‘Czech Modernism’, at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts many years ago, Roy and I created this collection using our own eye and emotional responses as a guide. Many of the works we had seen in that show literally stopped us in our tracks. During visits to Prague, just as it was emerging from the isolation of the Communist era and later, we found beautiful, powerful works which had been created by artists, often under conditions of great adversity. On our journey of discovery we were fortunate to make friends and acquaintances, on both sides of the Atlantic, with a broad circle of curators, art historians and writers in the field of Czech Surrealism through whom we also established ties with the families and associates of the Avant-Garde. With these invaluable insights we were able to ensure that the collection tells the whole story as much as possible.”
The Roy & Mary Cullen Collection tells a rich and densely layered story. Roy and Mary's interest was ignited by the October 1989 exhibition of Czech Modernism 1900 - 1945 held at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. Mrs Cullen's first purchase was a František Kupka pastel, Etude pour accent noir (Femmes), acquired on a visit to Prague in 1992 (estimate: £20,000-30,000). Following an exploration of the galleries in Prague, Mrs Cullen quickly realised that most of the best work by the Czech Cubists had already been snapped up, but at the same time saw the amazing opportunities to be had in the pursuit of works by the Czech Surrealists.
The star of the collection is unquestionably Czech artist Toyen's The Message of the Forest, painted in 1936, an especially fecund year for the artist (estimate: £700,000-1,000,000). Mary Cullen first saw the painting in Prague in 2000 while it was on loan at a major retrospective exhibition on the artist and the image immediately grabbed her. The painting was not available for sale, but a few months later, during which time Mrs Cullen’s obsession with the work had grown stronger, the owner decided to part with it, and after negotiations over the telephone, the Cullens acquired what was to be the highlight of their collection.
Toyen (Marie Čermínová) was in her early thirties when she painted The Message of the Forest, and producing some of her most daring and powerful imagery. Living in Paris between 1925 and 1928, Toyen and contemporary Czech artist Jindrich Štyrský had developed a particular artistic style called Artificialism, a transition between Cubism and Surrealism; a decade later, that transition was complete. The main representative of the inter-war Czech Avant-Garde, Toyen was the only woman at the forefront of that circle. The picture is the largest canvas Toyen produced in 1936, and also the most carefully considered and worked out. It shows her at her innovative and figural best, combining the spectral cyclopean features of the owl, presented on a richly textured yet ruptured backdrop, the bird's lone claw clasping the head of a girl suspended in space. The subject distils a crucial theme in Toyen’s work, that of the power of nature, embodied in the voracious owl, over the human world and its laws. The themes of night and the forest were embraced by the Surrealists, for whom the forest was a wild place symbolising the unconscious.
An Exciting Discovery
One of the most exciting collecting opportunities presented itself to Mary Cullen in Paris in 2004, during her attendance at the second major auction of André Breton's estate by Calmels Cohen at the Hôtel Drouot Richelieu. A portrait of André Breton by Toyen was the focus of her attention. The picture was overlooked when the first Breton estate sale took place the previous year. Toyen had given it to Breton and hung it in his studio above a large bookcase; the nail broke and the portrait fell down behind it. For over 50 years it lay undiscovered and was subsequently missed in the inventory for the first estate sale.
Portrait of André Breton (1950), in crayon, charcoal, oil and glitter on linen, sets the Surrealist founder’s profile in the centre of three triangles which are surrounded by symbols of the four elements, a reflection of Breton’s growing interest at the time in alchemy and esotericism (estimate: £120,000-180,000). In 1947, wary of the rise of Communism in Prague, Toyen fled for Paris where she remained for the rest of her life, and became an active member of Breton’s circle.
Breton played an important role in Toyen's life, as had Radovan Ivšić and Annie Le Brun, her friends and collaborators in Paris. Mary Cullen was introduced to Radovan and Annie at the 2004 auction. Sensing Mrs Cullen's passion for Czech art, they invited her to their home and pointed out a blue sofa where Toyen had slept in her advancing years when she was too tired to make the journey home. Radovan and Annie brought Mrs Cullen into closer proximity with Toyen through their shared history and special bond.
Artists Persevering Against All Odds
Mary Cullen comments: “What is so amazing to me is that so many artists, even in the worst of times, could rise above their circumstances and create something so beautiful.”1 One of these artists was Karel Teige, the leading theorist and organiser of the Czech Avant-Garde between the Wars. Teige founded the Czech artists’ association Devětsil in 1920, and published its magazine, the periodical ReD; in 1934, he co-founded the Surrealist Group in Czechoslovakia with Jindrich Štyrský. He revolutionised book design and typography, and in 1935 embraced the Surrealist method of collage which became his chief mode of expression in the last 15 year of his life. The collage by Teige in the Roy & Mary Cullen collection (estimate: £50,000-70,000) reflects his fascination with the female form, and its component parts. Dating from 1947 in the immediate post-Second World War years, he ridicules the glamour of the air force, by juxtaposing the smoothness of an inverted pair of pin-up legs emerging from the wing markings of a Spitfire fighter plane, with a trio of Spitfires flying past behind.
Teige was blacklisted in 1948 when the Communists took over the government and banned from publishing. He continued to work clandestinely, and with his collages he came up with a new vocabulary and language. Mary Cullen notes, “At no time would he compromise his feelings or beliefs.”2 In 1951, Teige died of a heart attack; the following day, his lover and companion of many years, Josefina (Jožka Navařilová), also died; ten days later, his young assistant and mistress, Eva Ebertová, also passed away, both apparently were suicides. Mrs Cullen continues, “We may never finally know the whole truth about what happened during those dark years. What remains is the testament of the artwork itself.”3
1 As told to Alison de Lima Greene in “Accidental Revolutionaries: In Conversation with Roy & Mary Cullen”, New Formations, Czech Avant-Garde Art and Modern Glass, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2011
2 As above
3 As above
