Hans BELLMER agrees to exhibit his "Doll" alongside André Breton.  

Hans Bellmer (1902.1975)

Autograph letter signed "Hans and Unica" to André Breton.

Three pages in quarto. Paris. August 6, 1959.

"It would be out of the question to exhibit a staging of the Doll under the category 'Active Surrealists'"

A very fine letter from Bellmer, not wanting his Doll with the surrealist group during the EROS exhibition organized by Breton.

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“My dearest friend, thank you for your letter and the invitation! For at least a month now, I have been working on the details of “The Doll,” and Unica is trying to create large, “impressive” pieces, as José Pierre recommended during his visit to us. In this same letter, I will ask Schröder-Sonnenstern [the German artist Friedrich Schröder-Sonnenstern] to prepare a shipment of four paintings to the Daniel Cordier Gallery and to return the photos I gave him for identification purposes. By the end of September, you will have everything you need (the photographers are currently on vacation). As for R. Oelze, I am enclosing a letter to the Rudolf Springer Gallery, which is handling his work, at least to some extent, at my insistence. If you would like to add a motet to the invitation, that would be all that needs to be done (…). After briefly glancing at the list of exhibitors during José Pierre's visit to our home, I informed him by letter that it was out of the question to exhibit a display of The Doll under the category "Active Surrealists." Because: 1) The Doll (or: The Dolls) was created between 1933 and 1937, and nothing has been added to it since. It therefore belongs to the past . 2) In view of my disagreement with the "group" since the "expulsion" of the major Surrealist painters: Matta, Brauner, and later even Max Ernst, it goes without saying that I will not be included in the "active" category. Could I ask you to inform José Pierre about this? I would be very grateful, as his reply was so full of arguments that I wouldn't know where to find the time to respond. Daniel Cordier came to see me before he left for his holidays . He showed great enthusiasm, immediately offering to buy twenty drawings from me at a very reasonable price and to hold an exhibition of my work. Being vaguely indebted to a dealer in Chicago, I asked him to postpone the deal for a while. In any case, he is delighted with my two stage designs and is willing to cover the costs. As for the summer in Paris, we endured with much of that courage one calls "the inevitable" those dreadful heat waves that caused the candles in our chandeliers to melt. The advantage is that the glue and paints, applied to the details, dry more quickly. Unica and I ask you to convey our warmest regards to Elisa. Affectionately yours, Hans and Unica.

The German artist Friedrich Schröder-Sonnenstern was exhibited from 1955 by the Springer gallery, then by Jean Dubuffet, in 1959, in the Art Brut exhibition, a few months before his participation in the EROS exhibition organized by Breton at Daniel Cordier's.