Ming Ming Chan - Bellmer Untitled

1) INTRODUCE THE DRAWING IN GENERAL TERMS

What is the title of the drawing?
Untitled

What is the name of the artist?
Hans Bellmer

What is the year the drawing was done?
The drawing was done in 1961.

What is the medium?
The medium is pencil and gouache on paper.

What is the subject matter or general theme of the work? (eg is it a figure drawing, a map, a portrait, an autobiographical work, a picture about nature, a drawing of the city etc?)
It is a female figure drawing.

Does the drawing have a particular purpose? Is it a diagram that explains how something works? Does it record accurately record the appearance of something? Does it express the artist's emotion or memory?
Bellmer started to create erotic drawings, etching, sexually photographs, paintings, and prints of pubescent girls in 1940. This drawing is definitely one of the erotic drawings of Bellmer. This drawing depicts a distorted and naked female's body. This is an abstract and surrealist drawing, therefore, it is difficult to identify the appearance and different parts of the body. Since this drawing is abstract, it shows Bellmer’s imagination of female figure and his erotic fantasy.

2) DESCRIBE THE DRAWING IN DETAIL

How is line used? What does it do/express?
Line is important in this drawing because this drawing is mainly composed by line. Those curvy lines create a sense of movement. It seems that a woman is moving his sexy body in the picture. Also, artist uses continuous lines to represent the smoothness and allurement of the figure.

Moreover, the lines keeps overlapping, and therefore it creates a illusion that there are two people in the picture. If this is an erotic drawing, the overlapping lines may represent a man and woman who are enjoying sexual related behavior.

Besides, the fluid and delicate lines convey a message of unconsciousness. To be more specific, it seems that the painter draw the picture with an unconscious mind so that the picture becomes abstract and surrealist.

How is tone used? What does it do/express?
The whole drawing is in a monotone which is black and white. Tone is not really important in this picture, line is more important. But the painter used black color to do the shading, and therefore make the figure becomes three-dimensional. Contrast is subtle in this drawing.

What can you say about shape and/or form in this picture? What is the effect?
The shape of the body is distorted and twisted. The body is different from the usual female’s body. Bellmer separated different parts of the body in this drawing. Such arrangements constitute an abstract drawing, in which provides room for imagination.

Is texture a feature of the drawing?
Texture is not a feature of the drawing. It emphasizes the female’s body by using curvy lines.

What can you say about the composition of the drawing? What is the effect of this type of composition on the overall drawing?

This drawing is so simple that it composed of lines only. There is no background and the drawing was just painted in white and black. Also, the figure was drawn on the middle of the paper and the figure nearly occupies the whole picture, therefore it attracts the audiences to focus on the figure easily.

Is rhythm important in this picture? If so, say more about it...
Rhythm is important in this picture as the lines create a sense of movement and rhythm. It emphasizes the movement of the woman in the picture. We can feel the erotic desire of Bellmer through the continuous, curvy line.

Is the picture balanced? Explain...
This picture is imbalance. It focuses on the upper part of the picture because the upper part depicted the toes and fingers which are complicated and they were depicted in detail. Also, the lower part of the picture is the breast of the woman and it seems more heavier compare with the upper part of the picture. (See the picture below as reference)

Is perspective used in the picture? If so, describe the way that the illusion of three-dimensional space has been created.
There is no perspective in the picture. It is just a simple picture with no background and perspective.

Is the picture harmonious? If so, in what way?
Yes, this picture is harmonious as the tone, lines and composition are soft and simple. All of these create a harmonious atmosphere.

Are there any strong contrasts in the picture? Say more...

There is subtle contrast in the picture but it is not strong. The painter depicted the feet, toes and fingers with darkest shadow. 

3) INTERPRETATION AND EVALUATION

What is the mood of the drawing? Justify your answer using information from your responses above.

Since this is an abstract painting, if viewers appreciate the drawing in different perspectives, they may have different ideas and moods.

I think this drawing may create an uncomfortable mood to the audiences in certain extent. This drawing depicted a distorted and naked woman figure, in which different parts of the body were separated. The distorted body contributes to the uncomfortable mood. 

However, by looking into the drawing deeply, we can see that the lines are soft and this painting is harmonious, and therefore it creates a relaxing mood. The soft and delicate lines constitute a sexy woman figure which is moving in a relaxed and sexy way.

What does the drawing express? Justify your answer using information from your responses above.
Although this drawing was depicted in an abstract way, we can still see a female figure in the drawing because some female sexual features are quite obvious, such as breast. Also, the figure is moving sexily  In my opinion, the distorted female body may be Bellmer's imagination and fantasy about female's body. It was Bellmer's first time to started to draw erotic drawing at that period, and therefore it may be Bellmer's attempt in imagining female's body. 

Also, the naked and sexy female figure may convey an erotic message as the naked figure leads us to think of sexual-related issue. Moreover, Bellmer overlapped the feet and it makes us imagine that there are more than one person in the picture. It seems that the woman is lying on the bed and enjoying some sexual behaviors with her partner.

In your opinion, why is this work interesting/moving/ clever/ imaginative/thought-provoking/......? Choose the adjective(s) that best fit(s) the work, and then justify your conclusions by referring to specific features and qualities of the drawing (including those you have discussed above).

I think the best adjectives that fit the work are abstract and surreal . Obviously, it is not easy to identify the subject at first glance as there are just simple lines in the drawing. However, by looking into detail, we can identify that it is a drawing of a naked female figure.  Although we can still identify the female figure, we cannot find such a distorted body in reality at all.The body was distorted and different parts of the body were separated so it is obvious that the female figure is unusual and surreal.

In addition to abstract and surreal, i would say imaginative is one of the best adjectives too. Bellmer is so imaginative that he drew such an unusual and surreal figure. Also, this drawing does provide space for the viewers to imagine as it is abstract and surreal. I would believe that everyone has different ideas about this drawing.

To conclude, the most successful and noticeable point of this drawing is that this drawing provide different feeling to audiences if we appreciate it in various perspective. Also, this is an abstract and surreal drawing which provides substantial room for viewers to imagine.