La bicyclette, 1968

Hans Bellmer   Famous Artists

Hans Bellmer was born in 1902 in Kattowitz and died in 1975 in Paris, he is a French and German painter, photographer, engraver and sculptor. And is most of all one of the major representatives of Surrealism.

In 1923, Hans Bellmer started his studies at the Technical University of Berlin. Over there, he got particularly interested in politics, the work of Karl Mark, and the realisations of the artist Dada. Soon, Hans Bellmer did his first of several journeys to Paris, where he met the Dada and Surrealist communities. When he came back to Berlin, he decided to open an advertising studio.

In 1933, his work and in particular his Poupées, are compared to «degenerated art» according to the Nazis that just came to power. In 1923, he decided to definitely settle in Paris where he participated for a few years in the Surrealist exhibitions. At the beginning of the Second World War, Hans Bellmer was trapped at the Camp des Milles with artists as Max Ernst, Springer and Wols.

In the 1930's until his death, Bellmer worked almost exclusively from erotic images always feminine, most of the time from the body of a battered woman.

The work of Hans Bellmer is often wrongly compared to perversion. His work is above all a precious poetic testimony of Surrealism, of course in the most extreme way.