Toyism: Contemporary Art Movement
What is Toyism?
Toyism is a contemporary art movement that originated in the 1990s in the Netherlands. The word symbolises the playful character of our artworks and the philosophy behind it. And the suffix ‘ism’ refers to motion or movements. The game of toyism is a serious matter that shows a new, critical and sensitive perspective on our present-day world. The art that is made is figurative, contemporary and based on a story. Not everyone likes art, but everone likes a good story. Every toyism artwork is made with the greatest possible attention for detail and with impeccable craftsmanship.
Origin
Toyism as art movement is a reaction on the post-modern world of individualism, which existed in the 1970s through the 1990s, the era in which “everything is allowed”. The name originated in 1990 when artist Dejo made a graphic work which was titled “Escape of computer spiders”. It was this work and later similar works that were the origin of the style at the beginning of the nineties. However, it took another two years before this resulted in a manifest. On September the 5th 1992 artist and musician Dejo (pseudonym) from Emmen wrote a manifesto called Mother and introduced Toyism to the audience.
History
Toyism can be split in two different periods, the period from 1992 to 2000 and 2002 to the present.
1992–2000
A couple of months after the manifesto was written, two other artists from Emmen joined the movement. In the first period, mostly the themes were worked out in a surrealistic manner and the returning presence of fixed icons (computer, space shuttle and teddy-bear) in their paintings. These icons represented the attending artists. The first exhibition was on February 24, 1993 in Het Veenpark. One year after the foundation work was exhibited in New York City. At the base was a figurative style with uniform areas of colour and simplistic elements that were inspired by Super Mario and the game console Nintendo. After the triumvirate fell apart, founder Dejo decided to make a world-trip and got inspired to make Toyism more international and open.
2002
After his world-trip Dejo rewrote the manifesto and gave other artists access to join the movement. As from 2002 the group of artists grows exponentially and artists from every corner of the earth decide to participate (Thailand, South Africa, Malaysia, United States, Iceland, Mexico, Peru, Italy, Australia, Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, Romania, Germany, China).
2002–Present
Present day the toyists have created 800 works of art, varying from paintings to sculptures and buildings. The toyists had a permanent studio/gallery in Emmen until 2015. In the same year they relocated their headquarters to the city of Groningen. They had a gallery in Villa Heymans next to the Groninger Museum for two years. As of 2017 they are located next to the KLM Flight Academy and Groningen Airport Eelde.
Philosophy
The philosophy of Toyism is that the artists operate as a collective, instead of separate individuals, hence one Toyist cannot be seen as more important or famous than the other. There is no rivalry among the artists. The evident message they carry out is that the artworks count, not the artist itself that has created it. Although the artists do make their own art, in many occasions the Toyists work together, which means that the produced artwork cannot be attributed to a single artist.
The thing about Toyism is that it can be many things and still be recognizable as Toyism. Some people say art must be only in the streets, some say it must be only in galleries or museums. Toyism is doing both. It can be small and also monumental. That’s because of the nature of Toyism. If someone defines Toyism only as an art movement there would be a lot of things that could not be explained. It is an art movement, but is obiously much more then that. That’s because Toyism is an alphabet, with its own grammar. You can write simple sentences, but you can also write complex texts. That’s the knowledge behind Toyism.
Movement
We operate as a movement, instead of separate individuals, hence one toyist cannot be seen as more important or famous than the other. There is no rivalry among the artists. The evident message we carry out is that the artworks count, not the artist itself that has created it. Although the artists do make their own art, in many occasions we work together, which means that the produced artwork cannot be attributed to a single artist.
Every toyist that joins the group chooses a pseudonym (pen name) starting with one of the available letters from the alphabet, a letter not yet in use by another toyist. This means that the group cannot be represented by more than 26 artists. Every single toyist chooses a so-called puppet, an icon representing the artist. By means of this puppet the toyist has its own face towards the public, although he or she is in fact faceless. Toyists never expose their human face (on photo or camera), instead, they wear masks to cover their identity. We focuse only on our creations, in which we leave our mark in the world as individuals, but we don’t reveal our identities.
Manifesto
Toyism started in 1992 in Emmen. Toyism is based on a manifesto. This manifesto is written on the 5th of September 1992 and is called ‘Moeder’, the Dutch word for mother. This manifesto can be seen as the mother of all their works of art and it is stated as a notarial deed in 1993. Its content is known only by the toyists and will not be revealed to the public. Things like usage of colour, technique, form etc… are mentioned here. But of course it is the artist himself/herself determining what he/she produces.
Mother
Why is the name ‘Moeder’ used? Mother is the origin and with her characteristics she delivers an important contribution to every piece of art produced by the toyists. Better stated, Mother always leaves traces of DNA in them. Mother relates to a partner, a male or female artist. This partner also leaves its traces of DNA. Their relationship produces offspring, children representing toyism art pieces.
The artworks always contain characteristics of both, Mother and her partner. But, because there are different partners, (Mother isn’t very particular all the children are different too. Someone from Malaysia has another background and culture than, for instance, somebody living in Iceland or the Netherlands. This is a nice phenomenon, because that person uses its own ideas, opinions and notions in the toyism style, causing a true enrichment, the style becomes even more interesting.
Pseudonyms & Anonymous
Within toyism pseudonyms are used. Every artist comes up with his/her own pseudonym and signs his/her work with that chosen name. The name starts with a letter from the alphabet that is not already in use by another toyist, so the maximum number of toyists is 26, obviously. As can be seen in the brochures and on the website their faces are never revealed! We wear masks as soon as a camera is in sight and we are recognised only by a toyism puppet and/or a toddler photo.
The puppet/toddler photo and the pseudonym are linked to the pieces of art. It is not the person and his/her face that counts, only art is important. This aspect leads to acting as a group, rather than an individual; this is the basic principle of toyism.
Characteristics
- Resistance to ego. It’s about art, not about the artist.
- Art for everyone. Not only in galleries or museums, but all around us.
- All works are narrative, meaning, as is so often said, “every picture tells a story.” Eyes are drawn to the allegory- keep looking and you will find additional meaning.
- All works are figurative, meaning they depict recognizable objects as opposed to abstractions. No suggestion of space and perspective.
- There are distinct outlines in toyist compositions. Lines of contrasting colour, rows of dots and even bands of colour containing dots around objects are prevalent.
- Colours are bold and distinct from one another, not blended.
- Deceptively simple looking at times, toyist works are not to be underestimated. They are, rather, heavy on skilful painting technique and craftsmanship.
- Themes chosen are common to the human condition. Work, eat, sleep (perchance to dream — there’s more than a tinge of the surreal going on here), play, procreate and please, do enjoy life and nature while you’re about these things.
- Cheery and humorous as its art appears, Toyism is a serious style that, upon closer inspection, often deals with subject matter that may be anything but cheery or humorous.
- Above all else Toyism is a friendly, uplifting oasis in a world that increasingly focuses on the bizarre, the violent and the freaky. It’s artists and the manifesto are not about something dark, narrow, twisted, tortured, but about life and light!
Projects
- Mind Games
- The Dot Project (De Stip)
- Toyism Ka
- Elephant Parade 2010
- Hotel Ten Cate
- Uppspretta
- Horsepower Mania
- The Flying Dutchman
- What’s for Dinner
- Noah’s Ark — The Philosophy of Faith
Sources
- Toyism: https://www.toyism.com
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyism
