THE CHILDREN’S TOY IN THE CONTEXT OF MODERNISM : THE PHENOMENON OF MINKA PODHAJSKÁ

Abstract

This article examines the work of the Czech-Austrian artist Minka Podhajská (1881–1963), a significant yet understudied figure in Central European modernism, particularly in the field of decorative and applied arts. Despite her marginalization in Ukrainian scholarship, Podhajská's practice reveals a distinctive synthesis of avant-garde aesthetics and vernacular traditions.
The study introduces the artist into Ukrainian art-historical discourse and reconstructs her professional trajectory
from her training in Vienna under Secessionist masters to her mature practice in Prague. It examines her participation in
key artistic institutions, including the Wiener Werkstätte and the Artěl cooperative, situating her within transnational
modernist networks.
Focusing on toy design as a critical yet overlooked medium, the article demonstrates that Podhajská systematically redefined the status of the toy by reducing form to geometric archetypes and rearticulating folk motifs through avant-garde formal language. In doing so, she transformed utilitarian objects into autonomous works of art and contributed to the broader
modernist project of integrating art and everyday life. Particular attention is given to the Series of Personifications of
Childhood Misdeeds (1930), which is analyzed as a key example of this strategy.
Drawing on a wide range of primary and secondary sources, the article fills a gap in the study of women's artistic production in Central European modernism and introduces Podhajská into its historiography as an important figure.