the Shooting Gallery X 1940

The Shooting Gallery X is a surreal landscape by Toyen featuring a chair with a wolf and a rabbit head as a backrest, surrounded by wreaths. I can only imagine what it was like for Toyen to create this weirdly suggestive drawing; it's like they were channeling some dream logic. What strikes me is the contrast between the delicate line work and the unsettling imagery, the juxtaposition of the chair, an object that symbolises domesticity and the grotesque display of animals. The wreaths that dot the landscape could be symbols of mourning or celebration, I wonder whether this piece relates to wider themes of trauma, conflict, and the absurdity of human existence. I feel like other artists such as Leonora Carrington also were thinking about these questions. But in the end, it all comes down to the fact that artists inspire each other across time, and in my case, I get inspired by them and their work, the ambiguity and the open endedness is always more interesting than fixed readings.