Eva Švankmajerová: From the Interior

Abstract: The art and writings of Eva Švankmajerová are not widely known outside of her native Czechia, despite being exhibited and published internationally. Having joined the Group of Czech and Slovak Surrealists in 1970 along with her husband and collaborator Jan Švankmajer, she would become one of its leading members until her death in 2005. This essay, approached partly through a dialogue that includes an expressive, imaginative voice in acknowledgement of the Švankmajers’ working relationship, focuses on two interlinked themes relating to aspects of her paintings of the 1970s: the location of the female body among domestic environments or objects; and the exploration of gender roles and corporeal identities. These are articulated against contexts within Czechoslovak surrealism, as well as to those relating to domesticity, gender, and feminism in socialist Czechoslovakia during the postwar era.