Hans Bellmer: The Anatomy of Anxiety

by Sue Taylor

The German-born Surrealist Hans Bellmer (1902-1975), best known for his life-size pubescent dolls, devoted an artistic lifetime to creating sexualized images of the female body -- distorted, dismembered, or menaced in sinister scenarios. In this book Sue Taylor draws on psychoanalytic theory to suggest why Bellmer was so driven by erotomania as well as a desire for revenge, suffering, and the safety of the womb. Although he styled himself as the quintessential Oedipal son, an avant-garde artist in perpetual rebellion against a despised father, Taylor contends that his filial attitude was more complex than he could consciously allow. Tracing a repressed homoerotic attachment to his father, castration anxiety, and an unconscious sense of guilt, Taylor proposes that a feminine identification informs all the disquieting aspects of Bellmer's art.

Most scholarship to date has focused on Bellmer's work of the 1930s, especially the infamous dolls and the photographs he made of them. Taylor extends her discussion to the sexually explicit prints, drawings, paintings, and photographs he produced throughout the ensuing three decades. The book includes a color frontispiece and 121 black-and-white images (eight published here for the first time), as well as appendixes containing several significant texts by Bellmer previously unavailable in English.

Genres: Art, Photography, Art History

310 pages, Paperback

First published December 11, 2000

About the author

Sue Taylor is Professor Emerita of Art History at Portland State University

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Bellmer was aware of his sadistic impulses, and he believed them effectively sublimated through his art. Regarding his obsessive renderings of pubescent females, he stated flatly...that if he did not draw young girls so much, he might have resorted to sex murder.”

Whoa.

So Hans had a few issues - and Sue Taylor basically sets out to answer the question "What the hell was the matter with this guy?" The book includes a large quantity of his work, spanning his career. Taylor psychoanalyzes his entire oeuvre, too, or at least most of it. Her text is fairly dry and dense - chapters include "Pseudorationality and the Virtual Body" and "Mechanical Metaphors in the Service of Symmetry" - but it's also rigorously researched and rich with biographical detail. She could have cooled it with Freud a bit. I found myself internally cheering every time she made it through two consecutive pages without a reverent "According to Freud..."

Slight exaggeration, but still.

As for the art: This is not a case of a controversial artist who's been tamed by the passage of time. Bellmer's work remains jarring and sometimes difficult to digest. Whatever demons drove him, I'm glad they found a creative outlet, where his handiwork was harmless - aside from the nightmares it may give you. I was turned on to his work (important clarification: turned on TO, not turned on BY) after reading an essay about Cindy Sherman. Sherman directly expanded on some of Bellmer's themes, and there are also echoes of Bellmer in some of the darker corners of the graphic novel universe. Amongst other places, I'm sure.

[Fritz Ptasynski · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author is quite obsessed with Freud and his take on development and sexuality. While I believe some of this is true, at some point it might be better to study the tenets of the surrealist artist group and spend less time making Bellmer fit into Freud's Oedipus complex mold. I realize much of Bellmer's work can be considered pornographic, there is no doubt he was a talented artist who drew images most would not bring to the light of day. He was another tortured soul who could draw anf paint and his influence casts a long shadow.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having similar sexual obsessions of Hans Bellmer I love that he is able to express his desire in a way that he can share with the world. I repressed mine and had a severe psychosis from it that doctors thought I may not return from. I am pleased that he found a way to channel his desires and contribute something beautiful to humanity. This book is one of my favourites upon Hans Bellmer.

[Cleo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Top tier analysis of some of the most alien images in 20th century art. There’s some reaching and gets a little bogged down with specific ancillary details (too much put on Hoffmann) but really goes for the throat for the most part. But I’m also Bellmer-pilled so I was always going to dig it I think

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

anything on the topic of perverse,cross dressing, technical masters---i love!

[Hana Zittel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Introductory perspective on an often hard to digest/difficult to understand surrealist.