Subasta Bidspirit | BELLMER HANS: (1902-1975) ‘I don’t

BELLMER HANS: (1902-1975) ‘I don’t know what drawing is anymore’ - BELLMER HANS: (1902-1975) German Surrealist artist and photographer. A good A.L.S., with his initial H , one page, 4to, Castres, 12 th March 1946, to [Joe Bousquet] ( ‘Mon tres cher ami’ ), in French. Bellmer states that he has not heard from his friend since returning to Castres, observing ‘C'est peut-etre de ma faute: comment repondre a mes lettres de desarroi et de desespoir?’ (Translation: ‘It may be my fault: how to respond to my letters of dismay and despair?’ ) and continues ‘J'ai retrouve un peu mon equilibre, ayant reussi a forcer mon epouse de me rendre les objets et les documents voles etc…… Tout cela est plus odieux que j'aurais jamais pu le croire: l'imagination ignore ce plan. Il faut etre concierge, flic, canaille pour y nager sans consternation’ (Translation: ‘I regained my balance a little, having succeeded in forcing my wife to give me back the stolen objects and documents etc……All this is more odious than I could ever have believed: the imagination ignores this plan. You have to be a janitor, a cop, a scoundrel to swim there without consternation’ ), further adding ‘Je suis desole de penser que je n'ai pas encore fait le dessin-frontispiece que vous m'avez demande: depuis que je vous ai quitte, la derniere fois a carcassonne, je n'ai plus touche a un crayon. Je ne sais plus ce que c'est dessiner. Mais des le moment ou je touche a un crayon, ce sera pour vous’ (Translation: ‘I’m sorry to think that I haven’t yet done the drawing-frontispiece that you asked me to: since I left you, the last time in Carcassonne, I haven’t touched a pencil. I don’t know what drawing is anymore. But the moment I touch a pencil, it will be for you’ ), Bellmer also writes despairingly of his book Les Jeux , ‘j'ai des soucis permanents......La fabrication est compliquee, les difficultes sont partout, mais, surtout, mon editeur n'a ni argent, ni initiative. Etant oblige de passer sans cesse a Paris, d'y depenser des sommes incroyables, enfin, a ce compte-la j'aurais pu faire le livre tout seul’ (Translation: ‘I have permanent worries……The production is complicated, the difficulties are everywhere, but, above all, my publisher has neither money nor initiative. Being obliged to constantly go to Paris, to spend incredible sums there, well, on this account I could have written the book alone’ ) and asks if his correspondent has received a copy of Evidence du Surrealisme . A couple of very minor, light creases, VG Joe Bousquet (1897-1950) French poet, often associated with Surrealism.