Art & Deformation - Hans Bellmer

Hans Bellmer, was a German born French surrealist. He made hundreds of photographed dolls made in the early 1930's as part of a protest against Germany's Nazi regime, and in part out of an expression of erotic feelings. Eleanor Hearney says Bellmer "Manipulated life-sized pubescent dolls... disremembered, fragmented and sexualised images of the females body". Represented by mutated forms and unconventional poses, his dolls were directed specifically at the cult of the perfect body then prominent in Germany, as seen in the images below. I consider “La Poupee” (Doll) extremely relevant when discussing deformation as it has an impressive aesthetic lineage and contains a perverse nature.

Hans Bellmer,

La Poupee (Doll),

1935; Paris