- 232
HANS BELLMER | Femme squelette articulée
Estimate
70,000 - 90,000 EUR
bidding is closed
Description
- Hans Bellmer
- Femme squelette articulée
- signed Bellmer (lower right)
- oil on canvas
- 65 x 65 cm; 25 5/8 x 25 5/8 in.
Provenance
Galerie 1900-2000, Paris
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2005
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2005
Condition
The canvas is not lined. There is an uneven varnish preventing UV light from fully penetrating, however examination under UV light appears to reveal an horizontal line of retouching (approx. 4.5 cm long) towards the lower part of the left edge, possibly related to a repaired tear and some further spots of retouching most predominately along the extreme edges. There is a stretcher-bar mark running vertically across the centre of the composition (only visible under racking light). There is some frame abrasion along the extreme edges. This work is in overall good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
Catalogue Note
This work alludes to the Kleist's Marionnettes, illustrated by Bellmer.
Hans Bellmer and the Anagrams of the Body
Bellmer is too often regarded as an artist obsessed by sex and its representations, and his work interpreted as merely eroticism. For Bellmer, the image of the body is more than a simple representation, it is the skilful mise en scène of desire. To view one of Bellmer's paintings is to understand that the body is the mirror of the psyche. It is a screen of representation, a copy, that translates the different experiences of the self. It is the theatre of our dreams and sensibility.
Many an artist has intertwined pictorial language with verbal language, the legible with the visible, the verbal with the iconic. For all of them the body is a place of privileged representation; a surface that enables the mise en scène of the psychic. For Bellmer, the body is like a dream. He invites us to dismantle and deconstruct it, to discover concealed or forbidden images. "The body, like a dream, can impulsively shift the centre of gravity of its images", Bellmer wrote.
Since Freud and psychoanalysis, the arts have conceived the body as a fragmented and semi-opaque screen of the unconscious. The image of the body is a cryptic interface that represents our inner world. Bellmer's drawings are also enigmas, like veritable cryptograms, that we need to decode. "Perhaps life needs to be deciphered like a cryptogram", wrote André Breton in Nadja. A friend of Breton and the Surrealists, Bellmer theorised this point of view in his book, Little Anatomy of the Physical Unconscious or the Anatomy of the Image (Le Terrain vague. Paris. 1957). A key phrase summarises the entire volume: "The body is like to a sentence that invites you to dismantle it, so as to reconstruct it through an infinite series of anagrams of genuine content". This perspective led Bellmer to compose some admirable anagrammatic poems ("Violet-hearted rose"), with Nora Mitrani and Joé Bousquet, and later, with Unica Zürn. The Doll, created in 1933, is itself an immense anagram, dismantled and reconstructed according to the principles of Bellmer's erotic universe. More than an erotic or transgressive provocation, she is also a mighty machine for fighting the Nazism that Bellmer fled in 1938, responding to an invitation from the Surrealists to move to France. Die Püppe, (the doll) was itself conceived as an anagram with infinite permeations, engaging the painter in a great erotic and creative game. Just like the drawings, she is a language-body, un terrain de jeu, a playground, ein tummelplatz; in perpetual anamorphosis, pulling us into the obscurities of our dreams and imaginations.
Jean-François Rabain
December 2018
Hans Bellmer and the Anagrams of the Body
Bellmer is too often regarded as an artist obsessed by sex and its representations, and his work interpreted as merely eroticism. For Bellmer, the image of the body is more than a simple representation, it is the skilful mise en scène of desire. To view one of Bellmer's paintings is to understand that the body is the mirror of the psyche. It is a screen of representation, a copy, that translates the different experiences of the self. It is the theatre of our dreams and sensibility.
Many an artist has intertwined pictorial language with verbal language, the legible with the visible, the verbal with the iconic. For all of them the body is a place of privileged representation; a surface that enables the mise en scène of the psychic. For Bellmer, the body is like a dream. He invites us to dismantle and deconstruct it, to discover concealed or forbidden images. "The body, like a dream, can impulsively shift the centre of gravity of its images", Bellmer wrote.
Since Freud and psychoanalysis, the arts have conceived the body as a fragmented and semi-opaque screen of the unconscious. The image of the body is a cryptic interface that represents our inner world. Bellmer's drawings are also enigmas, like veritable cryptograms, that we need to decode. "Perhaps life needs to be deciphered like a cryptogram", wrote André Breton in Nadja. A friend of Breton and the Surrealists, Bellmer theorised this point of view in his book, Little Anatomy of the Physical Unconscious or the Anatomy of the Image (Le Terrain vague. Paris. 1957). A key phrase summarises the entire volume: "The body is like to a sentence that invites you to dismantle it, so as to reconstruct it through an infinite series of anagrams of genuine content". This perspective led Bellmer to compose some admirable anagrammatic poems ("Violet-hearted rose"), with Nora Mitrani and Joé Bousquet, and later, with Unica Zürn. The Doll, created in 1933, is itself an immense anagram, dismantled and reconstructed according to the principles of Bellmer's erotic universe. More than an erotic or transgressive provocation, she is also a mighty machine for fighting the Nazism that Bellmer fled in 1938, responding to an invitation from the Surrealists to move to France. Die Püppe, (the doll) was itself conceived as an anagram with infinite permeations, engaging the painter in a great erotic and creative game. Just like the drawings, she is a language-body, un terrain de jeu, a playground, ein tummelplatz; in perpetual anamorphosis, pulling us into the obscurities of our dreams and imaginations.
Jean-François Rabain
December 2018