Hans Bellmer is considered an important proponent of Fantastic Realism. After having attended lectures at the Bauhaus in the early 1930s, he undertook trips to Italy and Tunisia, but temporarily ceased working as an artist in 1933 in resistance against fascism. Instead, Bellmer created female dolls and photographed them in erotic positions. The pictures were published in the French Surrealist magazine 'Le Minotaure', and the artist henceforth became one of the Paris Surrealists. When World War II broke out, Bellmer, who then lived in Paris, was imprisoned at Aix-en-Provence, just like Max Ernst. From then on, drawing became his preferred medium, and he developed a unique, figurative style. After the war, Bellmer represented the unconscious elements of physical sexuality in his oneiric images with the precision of the old masters. With these drawings, he held his first solo exhibitions as well as international group exhibitions with the Surrealists. He was later called the 'Dürer of Surrealism'. In his mature style, lines became lacy, and the eroticism was multiplied by means of confrontation with the death aspect of lust. As for the representation of the obscene, Bellmer's work is a rebellion against society, rationality and the morality of our time. His art had a particular influence on Paul Wunderlich and Horst Janssen.
