From: Jack Fulton (jefulton1@attbi.com)
Date: 08/30/02-10:01:46 PM Z
> Jack, I would also be interested in hearing those comments you're suppressing
> on Bellmer. Several names are popping up in this discussion which are of
> interest to me. Specifically, Francesca Woodman and Bellmer. I'll add an
> interest in the work of Vera Lehndorff (Veruschka) too.
Joe:
I was not suppressing my thoughts on Bellmer. I mean, he is interesting.
Theoretically, those "Poupeé" images of his two famous hand-made dolls are
anti-fascist statements. He was called degenerate but thought the 3rd Reich
to be so . . more than he I suppose.
The works are interesting one must admit but there is, for me at least,
hidden (or obvious) in there a creepy fascination of the young girl being
the seductress. We find this best put in Lolita by Nabakov in my mind. One
might even make a case for the child in Las Meniņas by Velasquez as being
not only curious but seductive. Anyway, I don't like it. I also didn't like
it when I first saw them as a young man. Bellmer just simply turned me off.
It was Kertesz's hand through the ship's ventilator that got my head turned
. . .and, Brandt. When I first saw Brandt's nudes @ SF Mus.. o f Mod Art in
the 50's, they were large . . maybe the 16x20 size . . it's a long time ago.
But, they were erased, goached, penciled, scraped w/a razor. He'd used
techniques outside the realm of the print which was supposed to be 'the way'
in my SF Bay Area legacy from Ansel, Ed, Wynn, Morley, Imogen, etc. etc. But
Brandt's work just stiffed me right there and I've never been the same.
Berhardt's work is frilly and silly and touches on the creature perhaps as
being a fawn-like innocent.
Bellmer is hung up on his own libido and thereby transfers his lust to the
disconnected contorted woman-child with limbs not only akimbo but in limbo
where Bellmer actually belongs.
Francesca Woodman is close to that. The angel who would like to be whisked
away. The tart with a heart. The charm with smarm. Innocent . . no. You
gonna get yo jelly mama when my head is mighty red?? Nope. Not for me. I
want real and direct and true and not that frilly frothy tableau.
Verushka is more real to me. A person self made in the world of the
falsely made. Her last work w/that German mate of hers, where he or they
painted her to look just like the background is, again, for me, idea
oriented and the nude being covered by the paint is an illusionary
palimpsest. that work is clever and like the tabula rasa, clean and
pristine.
Howz dat Joe?
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