The early spring

Mediums: oil, canvas.
Location: The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Center Pompidou, Paris (France).

Marie Toyn’s response to violence and military repression in Europe was two suite series of drawings – “The Shooting Gallery” and “Hide, War!” Created in the late 1930s, these works later turned into prints, where barren landscapes are inhabited by fragmented creatures and broken structures. At the end of the war, Maria created the painting “Until Spring”, which depicts another desert landscape, dissected by two rows of stones over graves without crosses and monuments. However, now butterflies – the image frequently used by the artist – are ready to rise from dead boulders. This is how the author expressed the light of hope after the tragedy.