Jindřich Heisler – Surrealism under Pressure 1938–1953 with inscribed note from author

Toman; Witkowsky. Jindřich Heisler – Surrealism under Pressure 1938–1953
Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2012. First edition. Quarto (4to). Black wood-grain effect boards, spine lettered in white. 144 pp. Printed on heavy art paper; extensively illustrated with colour and black-and-white plates. Dust jacket.

Published to accompany the major exhibition Jindřich Heisler: Surrealism under Pressure 1938–1953 at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2012. The volume includes a complete facsimile of Heisler’s celebrated surrealist photobook Z kasemat spánku (From the Strongholds of Sleep), originally produced clandestinely during the Nazi occupation in 1940 in an edition of only a few copies. Essays and illustrations document Heisler’s contribution to Czech and international Surrealism, from the wartime Prague underground to the post-war Parisian avant-garde.

A substantial and beautifully produced reference work, notable for its scholarly essays, extensive illustrations, and the rare facsimile of one of the key photobooks of twentieth-century Surrealism.

Condition: Fine in fine dust jacket; as new. First edition. Laid in is an autograph note inscribed by Jindřich Toman, who was Heisler's nephew.