Composition 1931

Toyen, a Czech artist associated with Surrealism, made this untitled watercolor with ink and color washes, full of suggestive forms. Imagine Toyen hovering over the paper, coaxing these plant and animal-like shapes to come into being through transparent layers of liquid paint. I empathize with the artist here, trying to find a composition in such tentative washes. What might Toyen have been thinking as she let the ink bleed, defining the boundaries of these strange, new lifeforms? Maybe she was looking at Max Ernst, or maybe she was just trying to find some freedom. Look at the way the ink pools in the lower right corner, almost like an eye staring out at us. There’s a conversation happening between artists all the time, across generations, and it's really nice to see the exchange of ideas as everyone tries to make something new in their own way. Ultimately, painting is an embodied form of expression. There is a lack of clarity here, so you can make your own reading.