Lenka Bydžovská - Karel Srp

Adresát Jindřich Honzl. Dopisy a scénické návrhy Jindřicha Štyrského z Honzlovy pozůstalosti

The large amount of material in the estate of the theatre director and theoretic Jindřich Honzl (1894-1953) includes interesting correspondence with the painter Jindřich Štyrský (1899-1942), which adds to current knowledge about the relationship and cooperation between these two artists and the lifestyle of the interwar avant-garde. Two other figures enter significantly into this written dialogue: indirectly, the poet Vítězslav Nezval (1900-1958), to whom both Štyrský and Honzl often make reference, and directly-in her own letters relating to Štyrský-the painter Toyen (1902-1980). All the above-named shared similar opinions on art, were members of Devětsil in the 1920s, and in 1934 became founding members of the Group of Surrealists in Czechoslovakia. Naturally the most interesting documents in Honzl's estate are the ones relating to theatre projects in which Štyrský was involved. Štyrský focused systematically on set design only during two short periods in his life: the first time in the 1928-1929 season at the Liberated Theatre, and the second time in the middle of the 1930s. The vast majority of his designs were created for plays directed by Honzl, though oftentimes it is impossible to distinguish who contributed how much in each case. From this perspective, some unique testimony is provided by a collection of letters from Štyrský and his notes and set designs for Honzl's production of Vladislav Vančura's play The Teacher and the Pupil at the Provincial Theatre in Brno in 1930. In this work Štyrský thoroughly applied the principles of Artificialism, which by means of projection he converted from the flat surface of a painting into the theatre space. Honzl's archive also contains some purely personal documents that provide more information about the circumstances of Štyrský's hospitalisation in Paris in the summer of 1935. The last theme is drawn from a letter from 1940, exhorting Honzl not to betray Surrealism even in the times of the Protectorate.

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