Salvador Dali & The Surrealists: The Argillet Collection | Page 32

H a n s B e l l m er

1902-1975

German-born photographer, painter, sculptor, printmaker, writer,
scientist and philosopher Bellmer was born in 1902, Katowice
(Silesia). He lived in Germany from 1923 from 1938 before moving
to France. Like most of the Surrealists, Bellmer was inclined
towards erotic and obsessive motifs with a particular interest
in female figures, representing mutated forms of women-dolls: 
mannequins, the first example of which he made in 1933.
The art of Bellmer is not a praise of women, although such
readings are possible. It is instead about masculine anxieties
inspired by the female sex and its perceived lack, notes Sue
Taylor in her remarkable study:  “Hans Bellmer, the anatomy of
anxiety” (2000).
“What is at stake here is a totally
new unity of form, meaning and
feeling: language-images that
cannot simply be thought up or
written up … They constitute new,
multifaceted objects, resembling
polyplanes made of mirrors …
As if the illogical was relaxation,
as if laughter was permitted
while thinking, as if error was
a way and chance, a proof of
eternity.”  — B E L L M E R

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 Hans Bellmer’s “Individual Etchings” suite includes 1 original
etching adapted with dry-point, size of paper 28 x 38 cm. The
suite was created in 1940, and 10 original etchings adapted with
dry-point chosen from the suite of “Songs of Maldoror”, size of
paper 56 x 38. The suite was published in 1967-1971.
DETAIL: Girl with Hoop