Hans Bellmer: The Anatomy of Anxiety

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating read
Review: Bellmer's psycho-sexual and sexually violent themes can put some people off, but the author takes a neutral, non-judgemental approach to help the reader understand and appreciate this very under-appreciated artist. If the only Bellmer you're familiar with is from his mannequins, or "Bellmer dolls," you'll find many surprising and technically impressive drawings in this book, granted many are sexually themed, and his obsession with kinkiness and erotica may seem a bit much. Keep an open mind...

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Rating:
Summary: Bellmer, Freud, and tiny pictures
Review: If you're interested in Hans Bellmer's art aside from his doll, this is the only book currently in print that has pictures of his drawing, painting, and print work. As an art book, it's pretty mediocre. There are 5 color plates. All the other pictures are reproduced in black and white, no bigger than 3 x 4 inches and often smaller. Picture text includes artist, title, and medium, but does not give original dimensions or indicate if the picture was originally in color. Many of the pictures are reproduced so lightly that, coupled with the small size, it is difficult to see the work at all.

The text, and there is a lot of it, focuses almost entirely on a Freudian examination of Bellmer himself. The art becomes merely an extension of the author's analysis of the artist. The author clings so strongly to this narrow interpretation that all the other facts and influences of Bellmar's life (growing up in Germany during WW1, coming of age during the Weimar Republic, and emigrating after the Nazi's labeled him as degenerate, the influence of the other Surrealists, the death of his first wife, his alcoholism, and so on) are simply mentioned in passing and then neglected as other avenues of explanation. By the end, the theory overwhelms the subject, and one wonders why the author chose to write about Bellmar at all and didn't simply write a general text on Freudian theory as a means of interpreting of art.

The book does have a chronology of Bellmer's life, which is helpful for finding context, and a very thorough bibliography that will point you towards better examples of the art. I added a rating star for including pictures of previously unpublished work.