Peg-Top 1937

Hans Bellmer made "Peg-Top," an oil on canvas, sometime during his career which spanned much of the 20th century. Bellmer, living in Germany during the rise of Fascism and two World Wars, deeply opposed the traditional, patriarchal structures of the time. In “Peg-Top”, we see a body, fragmented and reconfigured in an unsettling yet elegant way. It's hard to ignore the underlying tension of a doll-like figure and the sense of vulnerability and objectification that it conveys. Bellmer used the female form as a canvas to explore themes of sexuality, power, and the subconscious. Bellmer once said that his dolls were an attempt to "recreate the body as a poem.” He was trying to push against the idealization of the body in art and culture, daring to explore darker, more complex aspects of desire. "Peg-Top" invites us to consider how we construct identity and how societal expectations shape our perceptions of the body. It’s a powerful commentary on the ways we are all, in a sense, molded by the world around us.