Studies of Wolves

Author: Katinka Duffhuis

Tonny’s first exhibition in the Netherlands took place in De Kring in Amsterdam in 1924.^[1] At that time he was living in Paris, where his affinity for Surrealism was soon noticed by members of the Surrealist movement. The contacts he acquired around 1925 in the circle surrounding Gertrude Stein also brought him friendships with some of the most prominent members of the Paris Surrealist movement, such as Georges Hugnet, Benjamin Péret and René Crevel.^[2] Although in a strict sense Tonny was never a member of the Surrealist group, in late 1925 – when he was only eighteen years old – he was invited by the Surrealist group to exhibit at the La peinture surréaliste exhibition in Galerie Pierre: the first group exhibition staged by the Surrealists.^[3] In 1936 three of his transfer drawings were also included in Fantastic Art. Dada, Surrealism in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.^[4] The young Tonny attended the meetings of the Surrealist group around André Breton and Louis Aragon as much as possible.

After the Exposition internationale du surréalisme in the Galerie Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1938 Tonny devoted himself to taking this exhibition to the Netherlands. His father Antonius Kristians had opened Galerie Robert on Keizersgracht in Amsterdam the year before.^[5] Tonny put his father in touch with Hugnet, who often coordinated Surrealist events. Hugnet organized the exhibition, which took place in June 1938, but André Breton, Paul Éluard, E.L.T. Mesens, Roland Penrose and Kristians Tonny were also named as co-organizers in the catalogue.^[6] Tonny was the only Dutch artist whose work was shown in Amsterdam. Hugnet explained this in a letter to the gallery owner Antonius Kristians: ‘As far as the Dutch Surrealists are concerned, I do not think it would be useful for them to take part in this exhibition. There are already a lot of exhibitors, sixteen countries are represented. Tonny will represent the Netherlands. These Dutch Surrealists, if they exist, have never shown with us; we must guard against confusion.’^[7] Afterwards the exhibition travelled to the Koninklijke Kunstzaal Kleykamp in The Hague.
           
Tonny’s work fitted in well with the work of the Paris Surrealists because the way he worked was allied to automatism and free association. Tonny’s liking for drawing packs of wolves, as in this drawing in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen’s collection, emerges from a discussion of his work in 1929 by the art critic Waldemar George in the French newspaper La Presse.^[8] The drawing Wolven, duivels en menschen (1926) in the collection of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag gives a good idea of the variety in Tonny’s oeuvre. This transfer drawing also features wolves, but in a bloodthirsty fight involving people and skeletons. It is a contrast to the drawing of wolves in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen’s collection, which is a more peaceful and more detailed composition. Given that the artist signed the work it is probably not a study sheet. Little is known about the drawing today, but it probably came from the same period as the drawing of wolves in The Hague.