Pierre Molinier French, 1900-1976

Pierre Molinier (1900, Agen – 1976, Bordeaux) was a singular French artist, both a painter and photographer, whose work transgressed the social, sexual, and aesthetic norms of his time.

Initially a painter influenced by Symbolism and Surrealism, he turned in the 1950s to erotic and fetishistic photography, staging his own cross-dressed body in compositions involving masks, stockings, prosthetic limbs, and mirror play. His self-portraits, both disturbing and theatrical, deliberately blur the boundaries between gender, desire, the sacred, and the profane.

Closely associated with the Surrealist movement, he received the support of André Breton, who recognized him as a true iconoclast. Molinier embraced a self-described "pornographic" body of work—not out of gratuitous provocation, but to explore the transformative power of fantasy.

Pierre Molinier ended his life in 1976, leaving behind a radical body of work still seen today as avant-garde, subversive, and deeply personal. His legacy is now regarded as a major contribution to the history of photography and body art.