1. The name Toyen has been suggested to be derived from the French word 'citoyen,' meaning citizen, but it has been proposed to be a play on the Czech expression 'to je on'.
10 Facts About Toyen
1. 2.
Toyen favored this gender-neutral mononym and would speak the language in the masculine singular form.
3.
Toyen left the family home at sixteen, and it has been speculated it was due to sympathy towards anarchism.
4.
From 1919 to 1920, Toyen attended UMPRUM in Prague to study the decorative arts.
5.
Toyen joined the Czech avant-garde Devetsil group in 1923 and exhibited with them.
6.
In Paris, Toyen worked with Andre Breton, Benjamin Peret and other surrealists such as Annie Le Brun.
7.
Toyen would continue to collaborate with surrealist-affiliated poets and other writers but soon ceased working for commercial publishers in Czechoslovakia.
8.
Toyen was assigned female at birth, but appears to have preferred a less-gendered identification.
9.
Toyen has been described as presenting in an "ambiguously gendered" manner due to alternately wearing skirts and more masculine-styled attire.
10.
Toyen's contemporaries reported Toyen as walking in an unfeminine way and asserting that they were attracted to women.