Working mainly in photography, collage and painting, Pierre Molinier (1900 - 1976) revealed a world in which he persistently played out his fantasies through his surreal and sexually compulsive artwork.
Using himself and a select few other models, he often pursued sexually charged themes involving cross dressing, androgyny and the repeating images of favorite body parts - especially stocking clad legs. André Breton was an early supporter of Molinier, getting his work into exhibitions in Paris and encouraging him through correspondence.
Pierre Molinier was a man who not only recognized, but celebrated his deviance from conventional society through his charged and unapologetic oeuvre. In 1950, not long after his wife had divorced him due to his constant infidelities and controversial conduct, Molinier constructed what he described as his "Premature tomb" filled with photographs of himself in dark situations, such as being crucified, staging his own deathbed scenarios or suicide. Placed atop this "tomb" was a black cross engraved with the following:
"Here lies
Pierre MOLINIER
Born on 13 April 1900 died around 1950
He was a man without morals
He was proud of it and gloried in it
No need to pray for him."
Molinier's influence can be seen in the works of many contemporary artists such as Philippe Pissier for example.
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