Magnetic Woman

Magnetic Woman: Toyen and the Surrealist Erotic furnishes readers with both a fascinating biography of the artist and a map of the entangled histories of the Czech and French avant-gardes. Huebner’s work will interest scholars of interwar European history, of European sexuality and gender, art history, and international history alike, and the heavily illustrated monograph will intrigue scholars, general readers, and artists in equal measure.

This beautifully illustrated volume is a major contribution to our knowledge of Toyen and the Czech Surrealist circle, offering an extensively researched biographical account of Toyen’s career and work, notably in terms of her foundational role in the circle in the 1930s and then her career in Paris, where she moved after World War II and became an important Surrealist figure.

It is abundantly illustrated with often hard-to-find images from the publications of the Czech avant-garde; it is written with great care and is a testament to the author’s extensive transnational research. . . . The book is an exciting read about a fascinating artist and her life.

Magnetic Woman is a major achievement, very enjoyable and greatly informative.

The first English-language monograph on this major female twentieth century painter in her Prague and Paris milieux, Magnetic Woman is not only a scrupulously researched art-historical detective story but a sensitive and insightful exploration of issues of gender, sexuality, and erotic expression in modernist and surrealist art. Art historians owe Karla Huebner a considerable debt for this pioneering study.