Untitled (Double-Sided Portrait of Unica Zürn) (verso) 1954

Hans Bellmer made this double-sided portrait of Unica Zürn with what looks like white chalk or pencil on a dark ground, a process of building up the image through layers of linear marks. The drawing has a ghostly quality, a kind of haunting that's created by the stark contrast of white lines against the darkness. The marks almost feel like they are floating above the surface, not quite adhering to it, as if Bellmer is mapping out an idea or a feeling more than describing a physical form. Look at the way the lines around the face on the right converge at the eye, drawing you in with its intensity, a vortex of linear energy. The geometric structure feels like it’s both holding the image together and threatening to break it apart. Bellmer reminds me a little of Alfred Kubin, both mining a similar vein of psychological intensity. Both artists teach us that art is about embracing the unresolved, the uncertain, the multiple possibilities that exist within a single image.