Jindrich Štyrsky - Sny 1925-1940 - 2003

Sny 1925–1940 (Dreams 1925–1940) is a seminal surrealist dream journal authored and illustrated by the prominent Czech avant-garde artist Jindřich Štyrský. Originally compiled and prepared for publication by Štyrský in 1940, the book could not be released due to the German occupation of Czechoslovakia. Following his death in 1942, the manuscripts were preserved by his lifelong artistic partner Toyen, ultimately seeing its first publication decades later in Prague. Štyrský (1899–1942) was a titan of the Czech interwar avant-garde and a founding member of the Surrealist Group of Czechoslovakia. This volume offers a profound, immersive look into how his subconscious mind fueled his revolutionary surrealist art.

The book functions as an intimate, multi-disciplinary logbook where text and visual media mirror each other to build a cohesive psychological universe. Brief, unsettling literary descriptions documenting Štyrský's actual nocturnal dreams. The diary entries are accompanied by Štyrský's own drawings, sketches, collages, and paintings, resulting in a rich interplay between word and image. Later editions, including the English compilation, frequently feature introductory essays by avant-garde theorist Karel Teige, placing the journal within the broader context of the Czechoslovak Surrealist Group.

Štyrský’s journal moves beyond traditional storytelling to isolate what French surrealists called "the marvelous in everyday life", utilizing several recurring dichotomies. The entries explore a raw, highly uncensored eroticism entangled with themes of wartime mortality, dread, and biological decay.

Many vignettes tap into suppressed anxieties, childhood memories, and distorted fairy-tale logic, resulting in imagery that functions as darkly humorous yet potent nightmare fuel. Heavily influenced by techniques used by Max Ernst, the visual components feature object encounters, anatomical abnormalities, and architectural fragments that destabilize normal reality.

Copy in fine condition.