Pierre Molinier

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Pierre Molinier: "Mêlée Erotique" (circa 1968)

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Courtesy Patricia Laligant Gallery, New York, NY

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Pierre Molinier (April 13, 1900 - March 3, 1976) was a painter, photographer and 'maker of objects'. He was born and lived his life in Bordeaux, France. He began his career by painting landscapes, but his work turned towards a fetishistic eroticism early on.

Related Topics:
April 13 - 1900 - March 3 - 1976 - Bordeaux - France - Landscape - Fetish

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Molinier began to take photographs at the age of sixty. With the aid of a wide range of specially made 'props'--dolls, various prosthetic limbs, stiletto heels, dildos and an occasional confidante ? Pierre Molinier focused upon his own body as the armature for a constructive form that ultimately produced an extraordinary body of photographic work. Most of his photographs, photomontages, are self-portraits of himself as a woman.

Related Topics:
Prosthetic limb - Stiletto heel - Dildo - Photomontage

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He began a correspondence with André Breton and sent him photographs of his paintings. Later Breton integrated him into the Surrealist group. Breton organized an exposition of Molinier's paintings in Paris, in 1955.

Related Topics:
André Breton - Surrealist

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Pierre Molinier's enigmatic photographs influenced European and North American body artists in the early 1970s and continue to engage artists, critics, and collectors today.

Related Topics:
Body artists - 1970s

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Pierre Molinier committed suicide in 1976, at 75 years of age. On his door he wrote in chalk the following words: "Je prends ma vie. La clef est avec le concierge". ("I'm taking my life. The key is with the concierge.")

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