Polish French artist Hans Bellmer (1902-75) is best known for his series of photographs of his Doll, 'La Poupee' produced during the 1930's in Nazi Germany. He recieved no formal art training, he droped out of his studies in engineering in Berlin in 1924. His work is thought explicitly erotic, and the doll was inspired by his infatuation with his 15 year old cousin Ursula. His work, like many 'expressionist' working at the time, Bellmer adopts the female body to explore his personal, and general, anxieties and fears. Exploring the work of Bellmer, Therese Lichtenstein, in 'Behind Closed Doors' published 2001 ny University Press, uses Freudian Psychoanalysis to understand the use of the female body. Her study of the hysterical body, and the ideological understanding of is as being female is the key for her in understanding Bellmers work. I would argue that through projecting his own anxieties on to the female body, Bellemr is associating himself with the female, not ridiculing her/the female body. His situation prompted anxious hysteria, the threat of the Nazi's, who thought such art as degenerate, led Bellmer to leave Germany for good to live in Paris.
His drawings are of particular interest as they show clearly the layering of his imagery/thought patterns, which transcend the usual image of woman as hysterical and other to man.The crucial chapter in Lichtenstein's book to support my thinking is titled 'The Hermaphrodite in Me', where she explore how Bellmer projected himself on to the body of the doll, or expresses himsefl through the body of the woman. She states how Bellmer and his brother acted like little girls to protect themselves around their father. She references Freuds essays on 'The Uncanny' which explores the relationship between childhood memories and adult 'recovery' of these events. He explores how the adult recovery of these memories/fantasies allow us to bring to the concious traumatic events through the innocence of the childhood state.
Throughout his life Bellmer 'enjoyed' dressing as a woman or little girl, he dified the conventions of masculinity. His drawinds, i believe show this rebellious streak, and the layers of his sexual ambiguity. The drawings show masturbaitng females, one with a penis coming through the vagina, possibly being penetrated from behind, homoerotic tendencies can be read into the work. The other drawing shows a woman being or 'fingering' herself. their is no clear face, so it maintains the ambiguity noted throughout his work.
The crucial element to Bellemers work is that he used his own face as the mould for the mask of the doll. Either for practical reasons, he could have got a model though, or most likely it is further exploration of the ambiguity and transcendence of the masculine feminine body towards a mutual hemaphrodite.
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