 A beautifully crafted book, cautious interpretations
Therese Lichtenstein's "Behind Closed Doors" will immediately grab you visually, as any book about art or an artist should. It rivals Sue Taylor's "Anatomy of Anxiety" as far as visual appeal with the book itself and the plates therein. However, Lichtenstein's discussion of the exceedingly complex Hans Bellmer is a little too cautious, a little too much of a large brushstroke. This is a great book for a reader who knows little about Bellmer's work to read, but if you are hoping for some biography with your art discussion, this one does not have very much. This book is significant, though. Lichtenstein's discussion of Bellmer's life and art within an historical context is an engrossing and very well-documented discussion, but since so much of the book is spent on such interpretation, I feel it has left a lot of Hans, the man, and where his dolls really came from, by the wayside. This is merely opinion, and it may be that what was needed (and I guess I can accept this) was a new look at Bellmer and his work, with a little less focus on castration anxiety, his relationship with his father, his brother, and his lack of ability to truly be a child when he was a child. But I fear it was never really investigated b/c of the inherent taboo nature of Bellmer the man. It may have been me, but it always kind of felt like Lichtenstein was holding back a little, a tone of tension, perhaps, a touch of apprehension. What I feel is absolutely wonderful in Lichtenstein's book: its absolutely gorgeous creation, and the inclusion of a couple of Bellmer's own writing. As I said, for a reader just beginning to delve into the surreal world of Hans Bellmer, it is perfection. For those who already know a good deal about Bellmer, it is still very much worth it for the beautiful construction of the book, the excellent plates of his work, his own writing that is also contained, as well as Lichtenstein's solid, though sometimes redundant, interpretations of Hans Bellmer's work.
Behind Closed Doors: The Art of Hans Bellmer
This is a good book to dicover the strange world of Hans Bellmer. Therese Lichtenstein describes the history of the dolls and Hans Bellmer with the contribution of people that were close to Bellmer. She also try to give a sociologic, anthropologic and psychoanalitic explanation to Bellmer's work. I think it's a good book to buy!
Behind Closed MINDS
For me, this book was more than a mere companion to the exhibition, which I was fortunate enough to see. It caused me to reconsider my uncritical reluctance to take Bellmer seriously.
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