Untitled 1942

This Untitled work was created by Hans Bellmer, who was born in 1902. I can only imagine Bellmer in his studio, hunched over a table with a pencil in hand, teasing out these figures from what looks like his subconscious. It's like he's building a dream, brick by brick, or rather, line by line. Look at the figures on the roof – their bodies are tangled, vulnerable. And then there's the figure below, surrounded by swirling forms, almost protected, or maybe trapped. What was he thinking when he drew this? Was he trying to make sense of something, or just letting his imagination run wild? It reminds me of de Chirico's dreamscapes, but with a darker, more personal twist. You get the feeling that Bellmer is onto something, maybe a secret language of the body. Artists are always having a conversation, you know, across time and space. One person’s vision is born from another’s.