Untitled 1953

This is a drawing by Hans Bellmer, and just looking at it, I can imagine him hunched over it. I can see how the graphite softly renders these figures into being. Bellmer's marks are so light they are barely there. I imagine him working in his studio, thinking about the surrealists, maybe, and also Ingres, maybe also Picasso. Here, the figures are like dreamy, sculptural knots. I can see Bellmer circling them, finding them, losing them, trying to resolve the composition, but then, deciding that they are complete, even in their incompleteness. I'm reminded of Guston. Philip Guston, who also dealt with the figure in fragments and I am reminded of de Kooning and the way he worked and reworked his paintings, over and over again, sometimes for years. It’s a constant, ongoing conversation.