Absence of talent

Pierre Klossowski may have moved in prominent Surrealist circles in Paris, but this did little to raise his profile as an artist.

Certainly not in the absence of compelling talent - which is one good reason why he remains an unfamiliar name. This Whitechapel Gallery retrospective features Klossowski's large-scale erotic drawings.

These feature either his wife, and constant muse, in a series of literary and classical guises, or lithe hermaphrodites and men in 18thcentury attire.

At best, these are diverting illustrations of variable quality. More engaging are the tableaux of the drawings, made in collaboration with sculptor Jean-Paul RÈti in the 1990s. But Klossowski is in little danger of posthumously trumping his brother, Balthus, an artist who, with his unsettling paintings of eroticised preadolescent girls, was not unused to more high-profile controversy.

Far more compelling is the retrospective, upstairs, of German artist Hans Bellmer. From 1933 onwards, Bellmer made disturbing, sexualised dolls, which he then photographed in settings that suggested their violation.

Some of these are genuinely unsettling. One can certainly see their influence in the work of the Chapman brothers but the powerful disquiet Bellmer's work engenders has never been replicated by them.

If there's a criticism, it's the Whitechapel's insistence that Bellmer's obsession with these truncated and malformed figures was simply a form of political protest against the Aryan ideals of physical perfection. This serves more of a need to sanitise the work for public consumption than as a useful insight.

Until Nov 19, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Whitechapel High Street, Tue to Sun 11am to 6pm (Thu to 9pm), free. (020 7522 7888).

Pierre Klossowski
Whitechapel Gallery
Whitechapel High Street, E1 7QX