The artwork titled “The Doll (Second Series),” created by artist Hans Bellmer around 1937 to 1938, epitomizes the Surrealist movement. This photographic series is housed at the Tate Modern in London, UK. Through its intriguing depiction and arrangement, the artwork challenges viewers’ perceptions and evokes a sense of fantastical unease.
“The Doll (Second Series)” comprises a series of photographs arranged in a horizontal sequence. Each frame features a different perspective or aspect of a doll-like figure, manipulated in various positions and settings. Bellmer’s use of the doll as a subject matter aligns with Surrealist themes of exploring subconscious and dream-like states. The series employs muted and grayscale colors, enhancing the eerie and enigmatic quality of the images. The doll appears in contorted poses, sometimes bound by strings or positioned in unnatural postures, invoking a sense of distortion and surrealism. The frames are enclosed with a delicate border, adding an element of structure to the otherwise chaotic and unsettling imagery. This juxtaposition of the familiar (the doll) with the uncanny and abnormal underlines the Surrealist preoccupation with the strange and the subconscious.
