In Berlin in the 1930s, Bellmer constructed a series of life-size dolls, which he drew and photographed in various positions and settings, exploiting what he called their “accommodating and limitless docility.” This work relates to his second doll, made in 1935 from glue and tissue paper and painted a flesh tone. Its ball joints, which allowed for endless recombinations of its appendages, are emphasized in this drawing by crosshatched modeling in white ink on the black ground. These swollen articulations make the body a tumescent mass; as in Bellmer’s sculpture Doll, its order is undermined by the lack of distinct head or feet.
Gallery label from Exquisite Corpses: Drawing and Disfiguration, March 14–July 9, 2012.
