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Jindrich Heisler: Surrealism under Pressure, 1938–1953

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Surrealism Under Pressure

The Art Institute of Chicago, 2012

Available for purchase from Yale University Press

Czech poet and photographer Jindřich Heisler (1914–1953) joined the Czech Surrealist Group in 1938, just as Nazi occupation of the country was driving the movement and Czech artists underground. Heisler published his first book of poetry a year later.

In his brief and courageous career—he died suddenly at the age of thirty-eight—Heisler produced some of the most remarkable assemblage work of the Surrealist movement, including what is arguably the single most important photobook of the twentieth century, From the Strongholds of Sleep (1940–41).

This gorgeously illustrated volume—with eighty color images of Heisler’s assemblage pieces—introduces English-speaking audiences to his work, offering in-depth analysis of his postwar years in Paris in the company of André Breton, Benjamin Péret, the illustrator Toyen, and other major figures of the Surrealist movement.

Jindřich Toman and Matthew S. Witkovsky

144 pages, 8 x 10 in.
109 color and 7 b/w ills.

Hardcover $40.00
ISBN: 978-0-300-17969-9


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