The Ties that Bind Hans Bellmer's Tenir au Frais to Heinrich Von Kleist

Abstract

This article examines Hans Bellmer's photographic collage of 1958 Tenir au frais (Keep Cool), a work produced as part of his exploration of the theme of the female body bound with string. The paper argues that an interpretation of this image in the context of French Surrealism must take into account the fact that it appeared on the cover of le surréalisme, même, a journal that was filled with praise for the German Romantic writer Heinrich von Kleist. Tenir au frais has been interpreted variously, but little attention has been paid to its material context as the cover of the Surrealist journal. The Surrealists were political and cultural radicals, and their aim was a profound transformation of the world, a world that had generated atrocities beyond imagination in two World Wars. Shock was an important element in the work of the Surrealists, who often used images of sexual violence to challenge the status quo. The roots of this preoccupation lay in the writings of the literary heroes of the movement. This article argues that material context is crucial when considering possible meanings and that the image is tied to the Surrealist preoccupation with the German Romantic writer Heinrich von Kleist. Kleist's Penthesilea was particularly cherished by the group. They were interested in his portrayal of sexual frenzy, in how love and violence are fused in the play and in the psychological realism and tension in this ecstatic work. Bellmer's photographic collage provides an allusive illustration to the text on Kleist and connects with his drama on a number of levels, for it conveys extraordinary emotional distress but also the physical turmoil of the play in which the theme of binding is evident throughout.