Hans Bellmer | Items for sale, auction results and history

Hans Bellmer (1902–1975) was a seminal German artist renowned for his provocative and surreal works. His art, characterised by a blend of unsettling themes and meticulous craftsmanship, remains influential in the realm of modern art.

Born in 1902 in Katowice, Poland, Bellmer initially pursued a career in architecture before turning to art. His early works were rooted in the realism of drawing and etching, but his artistic direction dramatically shifted in 1933 when he constructed his first doll, which he described as ‘an artificial girl with multiple anatomical possibilities’. A year later, Bellmer published Die Puppe (The Doll), a book of ten photographs documenting the stages of the doll’s construction. These subversive images, exploring themes of sexualisation, desire and control, caused a stir among the Surrealists.

In 1938 Bellmer had moved to Paris. There, the artist met and became friends with many of the Surealists who previously had only known him through his work with the doll. At the same time Bellmer began, for the first time, to translate his experiments with the doll into the two dimensional field of painting. Using the idea of the female body as an anagram of erotic desire that he had developed in the doll, in his Cephalopods, Bellmer concentrated on the opportunity for ambiguous and simultaneous understanding that two-dimensional illusionistic representation allows in order to create powerful images of strange fetish-like morphed female creatures.

In 1954, Hans Bellmer relocated to the rue Mouffetard in Paris. In order to assuage his financial worries he turned to an activity which paid well, and at which he excelled, portraiture. Painting the portraits of Marcel Duchamp, Tristan Tzara, Wifredo Lam, Paul Eluard and Georges Hugnet amongst others, the artist would adopt a recurring methodology. Bellmer’s portraits convey his fascination with anatomy and visual ambiguity. His technique prompts a strong sense of realism, recalling his artistic training as printmaker and illustrator to George Bataille as well as his close association with photography. 

Hans Bellmer died in 1975, at the age of 72. The influence of Bellmer’s work extended beyond his immediate artistic circle, influencing Surrealism and later contemporary art movements. His works can be found in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Tate in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.