Covering four decades ofthe German artist’s career, from the late 1930s to the early 1960s, the show places a particular emphasis on the last two decades of his graphic production, a period during which Bellmer liberated his line from the more illustrational and miniaturist mode of his early years. With stunning consistency, vertiginous fluidity and sure-handedness, the resulting often larger scale drawings continue to plough some ofthe motifs from his erotic vocabulary that have confirmed his reputation as one of the most engaging draftsman of the 20th century.

Bellmer’s influence on certain leading American artists such as Mike Kelley, Cindy Sherman or Matthew Barney warrants an attempt to extract his work from behind closed doors and the usual Surrealist mold in order to test his images in the open field. The exhibition brings together 4 well-known hand colored photographs from Les Jeux de la Poupée, 20 seldom seen drawings – including 4 color works and 1ofthe 2 existing versions of Le Sens Commun – as well as a number of rare etchings and color lithographs.

This exhibition coincides with the major traveling retrospective, Hans Bellmer: Anatomy of Desire,on view until May 22nd at the Centre Pompidou, Paris. Subsequent venues are the Staatlische Graphische Sammlung, Munich (June 21 – August 20), and the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (September 18 – November 19). Approximately 70 small format photographs can also be seen in a concurrent show at New York’s Ubu Gallery.

Related blog post: Hungry Hyaena