Untitled (Variations around La Poupée) 1934

This drawing is by Hans Bellmer, and it's titled 'Untitled (Variations around La Poupée)'. It looks like it was made with graphite, or maybe charcoal. The process looks like a fever dream, and the image feels like it’s being built up from many attempts to find its form. I’m drawn to the ambiguity of the shapes. Bellmer creates tension through his mark-making, it’s neither precise nor random, hovering somewhere in between. There’s an unfinished quality that is intriguing. Looking at the large leaf shapes, I wonder about the weight of them, they feel heavy and soft at the same time. The brickwork in the background feels like a stage set, an impossible construction. Bellmer reminds me of Philip Guston in the way he walks a tightrope between figuration and abstraction, playing with the subconscious. I think of art as an ongoing dialogue, there are no fixed answers.