{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1299837"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1299837/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2014HG5074/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2014HG5074/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2014HG5074","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1299837","accessionNumber":"E.646-2014","objectType":"Photograph","titles":[{"title":"Autoportrait Genoux","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Pierre Molinier is best known today for his photographs, though he studied as painter from 1920, progressing in style through Realism and Impressionism to abstraction. By 1936 he was producing surreal Symbolist paintings and drawings and showed his works at the International Surrealist Exhibition, Paris, in 1959. From the beginning of the 1960s until his suicide in 1976, he creating staged self-portrait photographs that explored his subconscious sexual desires, played out in his 'boudoir-atelier' in Bordeaux. In these small, darkly seductive photographs, Molinier – either alone with doll-like mannequins or female models – is transformed by his fetish wardrobe of fishnet stockings, suspender belt, stilettos, mask and corset. The pictures bear the aesthetic stamp of his formative years in the 1920s and '30s, but are the products of a more radicalized, permissive era. When understood as a sustained investigation, his images chart the conceptual and pictorial transformation of his own recognizably male body into one more gender fluid via the medium of photography.  \nMolinier’s work uncovers connections between religious ritual and sexuality and were intended to shock. The BDSM elements especially have the power to be extremely provocative, deliberately challenging norms of morality and decency whilst simultaneously exploring the aesthetics of desire and sexuality through gender play and drag performance. They also invoke the debate concerning the boundary between erotic art and pornography.\r\n\r\nIn making himself the staged subject of his own work, Molinier’s photographs anticipate the development of body and performance art from the early 1970s, when his work first received critical recognition. It also connects with the work of figures such as Robert Mapplethorpe, Cindy Sherman (in the V&A collections) and Gilbert and George produced since the 1980s. Connections can also be made with the drawings and cult of decadence around Aubrey Beardsley, with other works of surrealism, self-portraiture and staged photography in the V&A collections, with items in the Theatre and Performance collections and with LGBTQ identities.","physicalDescription":"Black and white photograph of a male figure dressed in black high heels, stockings, suspenders, an underbust corset and sleeves, kneeling on a chair in front of a folding screen","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Molinier, Pierre","id":"AUTH332716"},"association":{"text":"photographer","id":"x43821"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"photographic paper","id":"AAT14190"}],"techniques":[{"text":"gelatin silver process","id":"AAT139114"},{"text":"photography","id":"AAT54225"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Gelatin silver print","categories":[{"text":"Photographs","id":"THES48910"},{"text":"LGBTQ","id":"THES266921"},{"text":"Gender and Sexuality","id":"THES48940"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2014HG5074"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"512M","id":"THES49774"},"free":"","case":"PX4","shelf":"4","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"photograph","id":"AAT46300"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1960","earliest":"1960-01-01","latest":"1960-12-31"},"association":{"text":"photographed","id":"x30151"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Purchased through the Cecil Beaton Fund","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"12","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"9","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Photograph by Pierre Molinier, 'Autoportrait Genoux', gelatin silver print, 1960\r\n","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"<b>Gallery 100, 2016-17:</b>\n\nPierre Molinier (1900–76)\r\n‘Autoportrait Genoux’, ‘Autoportrait: Oh!...Marie, Mère de Dieu’\r\n1960; 1965\n\r\nPierre Molinier explored his transsexual desires through a series of self-portraits, played out in his ‘boudoir-atelier’ in Bordeaux. In these small, darkly seductive photographs, Molinier appears transformed by his fetish wardrobe of fishnet stockings, suspender belt, stilettos, mask and corset. In making himself the staged subject of his work, Molinier anticipated the body art and performance art of the 1970s.\n\r\nGelatin silver prints\r\nMuseum nos. E.646, 647-2014\n","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null}}],"partNumbers":["E.646-2014"],"accessionNumberNum":"646","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":2014,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-09","recordCreationDate":"2014-09-01","availableToBook":false}}