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INFERNAL
METAMORPHOSIS
Pierre Molinier (1900-1976) remains one of the most controversial of all 20th century artists, an uncompromising loner who listed his three passions in life as “painting, girls and guns”, claimed to have masturbated over his sister's corpse, and committed ritualistic suicide when he felt his body (more specifically, his anus) could no longer afford him pleasure. Associated with the Surrealist movement through his vivid, erotically-charged paintings, which were championed in the 1950s and 1960s by André Breton – who organized a Paris exhibition and featured the artist's work both in the Surrealist revue Le Surréalisme, Même and in his own magnum opus Art-Magic – Molinier is perhaps now better known for his many series of highly fetishized, sexually explicit, black and white photographs and photomontages. Molinier himself usually appears in these images - sometimes alone, sometimes with others of indeterminate gender, sometimes with a mannequin, sometimes – through collage – with himself, and nearly always dressed in sheer black stockings, suspenders and high heels. Dildos, whips, masks and other erotic accoutrements – including the “love-spurs” which the artist constructed for the express purpose of auto-sodomisation – also feature heavily, with Molinier's notorious and all-consuming leg and anal fetishes always to the fore. The first monograph on Molinier to be published in the English language, INFERNAL METAMORPHOSIS combines both Molinier’s paintings and photography, presenting over 100 images alongside detailed analysis of his life, work and psychopathology, plus a filmography, bibliography, chronology and selected list of works. Includes a colour section of 23 full-colour plates. INFERNAL METAMORPHOSIS is published April 2009
in a strictly limited, numbered hardback edition of 69 copies only.
96 pages, 8.5 X 8.5 inches. SOLD OUT ISBN 1-902588-79-7 Copyright © 2009 by The Wet Angel
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