Objekt-fantom 1937

Toyen made this painting, Objekt-fantom, with oil paint, and the sandy hues and dark shadowy sea immediately pull you into a strange landscape, where a giant eye, or orb, stares back at you, daring you to look. You can almost feel the artist’s hand moving across the canvas, building up the texture and depth of the eye’s surface, the little rocks scattered around. I wonder what Toyen was thinking as they brushed those strokes onto the canvas. Maybe they were exploring themes of surveillance, or maybe they were just having some fun, playing with scale and perspective. The dreamlike quality reminds me of other surrealist painters like Magritte or de Chirico, but Toyen’s unique voice shines through. It's a reminder that art is a conversation, a dialogue between artists across time and space. And who knows, maybe one day some other artist will be inspired by this very painting, and the conversation will continue.