The Doll 1934

This is a photograph by Hans Bellmer, whose dolls from the 1930s are pretty well-known. The whole thing has this dark, noir-ish feel, mostly in blacks and whites. I like how Bellmer isn't hiding the seams of this doll, not trying to trick us, more like he's messing with our ideas of beauty and bodies. Check out the doll's eye; it's just a black dot, simple, but it gives the whole piece this unsettling feeling. It’s like a dead stare, but not quite, more like a weird question. And how the veil kinda covers the face, like a mystery, or maybe a comment on how we see women. Bellmer was doing his own thing, exploring some pretty dark and twisted stuff, kind of like the art of Louise Bourgeois later on, who was also digging into the weird parts of being human. Art, at its best, keeps the conversation going, right?