Photograph or Moving Image by ForeignPhotographer/Artist
Inventory Number
93-PHF-017
Between 10 and 20 of Hans Bellmer’s photographs of his first doll were sent to Paris, where they were acclaimed by the Surrealists and published in the magazine Minotaure. Yet when the Surrealists saw his photographs of his second doll, their leader, André Breton, was horrified by their shocking content. The poet Paul Éluard, on the other hand, was so delighted that he personally selected 14 of the photographs and offered to publish a book with a poem for each. The project was realized in 1949, after the Second World War, and published as The Games of the Doll. The photographs were hand-colored with transparent aniline dyes. This photograph is identical to one that appeared in the book, with the hinged wooden box colored light brown and the doll’s two genital areas colored pink.
(NAKAMURA Naoaki)
Between 10 and 20 of Hans Bellmer’s photographs of his first doll were sent to Paris, where they were acclaimed by the Surrealists and published in the magazine Minotaure. Yet when the Surrealists saw his photographs of his second doll, their leader, André Breton, was horrified by their shocking content. The poet Paul Éluard, on the other hand, was so delighted that he personally selected 14 of the photographs and offered to publish a book with a poem for each. The project was realized in 1949, after the Second World War, and published as The Games of the Doll. The photographs were hand-colored with transparent aniline dyes. This photograph is identical to one that appeared in the book, with the hinged wooden box colored light brown and the doll’s two genital areas colored pink.
(NAKAMURA Naoaki)