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Hans Bellmer In The Art Institute Of Chicago: The Wandering Libido And The Hysterical Body, Sue Taylor

Sue Taylor

Part of a special issue on the Mary Reynolds Collection and related works in the Art Institute of Chicago. The writer discusses the work of German artist Hans Bellmer. Bellmer's whole oeuvre is in a sense symbolized by a lithograph depicting a doll with an inquisitive disembodied eye peering through her navel and a dark male hand prodding her breast, an image of male sexual domination and curiosity. Bellmer's concerns dovetailed with those of the Surrealists: the Surrealist fascination with automata and the Surrealist idealization of the innocent femme-enfant, the latter coinciding with Bellmer's fascination with little girls as a …