which he began in 1934. Starting in 1935, Teige
himself used the same collage technique as Sˇtyrsky ́:
He cut reproductions out of different magazines,
which he coloured and occasionally also supple-
mented with original photographs. Unlike Sˇtyrsky ́,
Teige experimented with different techniques but
did not stress the two-dimensionality of the picture.
The photo-collage was for Teige a kind of
‘‘relaxation’’ after his intensive art and theoretical,
editorial, and organizational work. Without doubt,
practice of the study of the unconscious also sup-
plemented his artistic horizon: Although he did not
regard—as did Sˇtyrsky ́for instance—the dream as
the only source of the pictorial and photographic
activity, the ‘‘poetic’’ function became (as for
example Roman Jakobson formulated it) after a
longer technical-constructionist phase a firm com-
ponent of his theoretical and practical artistic
work. Teige returned to figures, which he had com-
pletely ignored over the years during his typo-
graphic book cover creation period. The book
cover to Vı ́teˇzslav NezvalPantomima(1935) corre-
sponds with hisCollage Nr. 1from the same year,
above all which concerns the topic choice: Torsi
and fragments of the female body—breasts, feet,
and arms, observing eyes, often behind a mask,
hints of the passing of time—form a constant in
these works. First influenced by Max Ernst, Teige
played in numerous variants to the works of art of
the Surrealists as well as—fragmentarily—to the
great works of the history of art, reproductions of
which he cut out and worked at: Magritte and
Du ̈rer, Dalı ́ and Rembrandt, De Chirico and
Goya, Bellmer and David.
This relatively unsystematic choice in the differ-
ently processed motives and forms in his photo-
collages is directly connected with art-theoretical
activities of Teige. It is impossible to enumerate
all the influences and to point out an evolution in
these 374 works. It is also not clear if Teige seized
the camera in order to shoot certain photographs
that he wanted to use. It seems rather that he
availed himself of an existing body of photographs
and let himself be inspired by momentary mood
and fantasy.
The largest part of all his photo-collages, about
60%, were developed during the war between 1939
and 1942, when it was increasingly difficult to pub-
lish his theoretical work. Teige did not intend to
publish these collages. The publication of some
works in 1948 in the magazineZveˇrokruh(Zodiac),
did not change the fact that one of the most impor-
tant photocollagists of Surrealism remained com-
pletely unknown. Although Teige—mainly in his
nude fragments—succeeded to reach by simplifica-
tion a nearly sculptural dimension of photo-col-
lage, his art was hardly perceived.
In 1972 an assembly of 96 designs, water color
paintings, and graphic sheets from the years 1915 to
1923 as well as 312 collages were donated to the
literary archives of the National Museum for Lit-
erature in Prague. But only after the ‘‘peaceful revo-
lution’’ in 1989 did the extraordinary position Karel
Teige held in the domain of the Surrealist photo-
collage become apparent in numerous exhibitions:
Beside those of Ernst, Bellmer, Hugnet, Mallet
Sˇtyrsky ́and Bayer, who worked only occasionally
with photo-collage, the work of Karel Teige is the
most extensive. It corresponds with the postulate of
the Surrealists, who searched after the ‘‘uncon-
sciousness of an internal model.’’
MilanChlumskyBiography
Born on December 13, 1900 in Prague. Studied art history at
Charles University in Prague. 1920 joint founder of the
group of artists ofDeveˇtsil(1920–1932), he was the speaker
of the group and an influential theoretician. 1929 to 1935
chairman of the artist and intellectual movementLeva ́
Fronta(Left front). 1934 entry into the Prague Surrealist
group, that maintained relations with the Paris Surrealists
and Andre ́ Breton. In the same year, after more than 10
years of typographic practice, he began to orient himself
first with cubism, later on with constructionalism, with
photo-collages and photo-assemblies. Teige remained
speaker of the Prague Surrealists until 1947. 1948, after the
communistputschin Prague, this artist movement was for-
bidden. He was one of the most important art theoreticians
of the avant-garde in Czechoslovakia between 1925 and- Died on January 10, 1951, of heart failure in Prague.
Selected Publications
Jan Zrzavy ́, Monographie(The Painter Jan Zrzavy ́, Mono-
graphy), 1923
Modernı ́cˇeska ́architektura,(Modern Czech Architecture),
1924
Film, 1925
Stavba a ba ́senˇ(Construction and Poetry), 1927
Manifest poetismu(The Manifesto of the Poetism, together
with the poet Vı ́teˇzslav Nezval), 1928
Sveˇt, ktery ́se smeˇje(The World, which Laughs), 1928
U ́lohy modernı ́fotografie(The Tasks of the Modern Photo-
graphy), 1931
Nejmensˇı ́byt(The Smallest Dwelling), 1932
O fotomonta ́zˇ i(On the Photo-assembly), 1932
Jarmark umeˇnı ́(The Fair of the Art), 1936
Sˇtyrsky ́a Toyen(The painters Sˇtyrsky ́and Toyen, Mono-
graphy), 1938
ThemodernphotoinCzechoslovakia, Ed. Orbis, Prague, 1947
Sveˇtstavby a ba ́sneˇ(The World of the Construction and the
Poem), Studies from the 1920s, Prague, 1966
Vy ́vojove ́promeˇny v umeˇnı ́(The Development Tendencies in
the Art), Prague, 1967TEIGE, KAREL