The Doll

The Doll 

人形

Artist
BELLMER, Hans
ベルメール、ハンス
Birth Year
1902
Death Year
1975
Date
1935 (printed in later years) 
Technique, Material, Format
gelatin silver print 
Dimension
25.7 x 26.0 cm 
Category
Photograph or Moving Image by ForeignPhotographer/Artist 
Inventory Number
93-PHF-008 

Several of Hans Bellmer’s photographs of articulated dolls make use of similar arrangements and backgrounds, but with slightly different details and perspectives. Such is the case with this photograph of a doll standing facing a closed door. Here there is a large decorative cord in front of a dark wall on the right of the picture, while in another version of this shot also in the museum’s collection there is a woman’s sandal. The doll in this photograph has her "upper backside" facing the camera, her left leg stretched straight up, and her right leg open at an unnatural diagonal angle. The V-shape of her upper legs echoes the shapes in the decorative cord and the illuminated vertical edge of the dark wall. Placing these two similar photographs side by side, one senses there might be a narrative connection. A box of memorabilia that Bellmer left among his possessions at the time of his death included a decorative cord like the one seen here.
(NAKAMURA Naoaki)

Page Top