Description

This Is An Original Hand Signed Lithograph By Hans Bellmer Which Is Titled "Souterrain Baroque". Produced On Bfk Rives Paper. Hand Signed By Bellmer In The Lower Right Bottom Of Image. Published By Pierre Argillet In 1970. Image Measures 16" X 23.5". Paper Measures 20" X 27". This Piece Is Numbered From An Edition Size Of 100. In Mint Condition, Comes Unframed. Includes Certificate Of Authenticity. Born: 1902, Upper Silesia, Germany. Died: 1975, Paris, France. Hans Bellmer Was An Established Painter And Graphic Designer, Best Known For The Life-Sized Pubescent Female Dolls He Produced In The Mid-1930s After The Rise To Power Of The Nazi Party In 1933. He Initiated His Doll Project To Oppose The Fascism Of The Nazi Party By Declaring That He Would Make No Work That Would Support The German State. Represented By Mutated Forms And Unconventional Poses, His Dolls Were Directed Specifically At The Cult Of The Perfect Body Then Prominent In Germany. His Work Was Declared 'Degenerate' And He Fled Germany To France. His Work Was Welcomed In The Parisian Art Culture Of The Time Because Of The References To Female Beauty And The Sexualization Of The Youthful Form. Bellmer's 1934 Book Die Puppe (The Doll), Produced And Published Privately In Germany, Contains Ten Black-And-White Photographs Of Bellmer's First Doll Arranged In A Series Of Tableaux Vivants. Bellmer Also Created Erotic Drawings And Etchings. He Is Most Commonly Thought Of As A Surrealist Photographer. Bellmer Worked Until Death, Constantly Fascinated With Erotic Images And Possibilities. Major Retrospective Exhibition At The Centre National D'art Contemporain, Paris 1971-72. Source: Ronald Alley, Catalogue Of The Tate Gallery's Collection Of Modern Art, Tate Gallery And Sotheby Park-Bernet, London 1981, Pp. 44-45.