Sadistic Kids with Big Heads and Dicks: The Art of Antoine Bernhart

Antoine Bernhart (b. 1950) is a German-born comic artist inspired by the Japanese ero guro aesthetics. In the 1980s, he produced art for albums and posters of psychobilly rock bands like Meteors, Tall Boys, Vibes, Cannibals, and Milkshakes. When he was introduced to the Japanese photography club Kinbiken, the practice of kinbaku became a leitmotif of his disturbingly attractive horror tales for adult perverts.

Fig. 1. Antoine Bernhart, 2019 (sterput.org)

Fig. 2. Im Dunkeln Wald/ In The Dark Woods book (beuysonsale.com)

Fig. 3. over-blog-kiwi.com

Fig. 4. antoine-b.com

Fig. 5. Nacht Shlacht / Night Battle (montenlair.fr)

Fig. 6. Nacht Shlacht / Night Battle (montenlair.fr)

Fig. 7.  antoine-b.com

Fig. 8. Nacht Shlacht / Night Battle (montenlair.fr)

Fig. 9. Automatic drawing from Papiers Hantés (timeless-shop.com)

Seeking Out Hortense

Despite the existence of Bernhart's website, there's not so much info about him on the web. Antoine Bernhart was born in Strasbourg, in his twenties relocated to Paris, and later moved to London. Though it's unknown whether he received any professional artistic training, one may guess that drawing became his obsession relatively early. In 2022, the Timeless Publishing House specializing in underground art released an edition of Bernhart's automatic drawings Papiers Hantés, which were exhibited at the MAMCO (Museum of Modern Art of Geneva) and Les Abattoirs (Museum of Modern Art of Toulouse). The commentary states that Bernhart started producing automatic drawings already in the mid-1960s (~fifteen years old). They were published in 1968 in the book entitled 'H' with writings provided by Christian Bernard. The title, which may stand for “horror”, probably was also inspired by Arthur Rimbaud's cryptic poem H (The mirror of the movements of Hortense / Images everything monstrous. / Her solitude is erotic mechanics, / Her lassitude the dynamics of love - tr. by Paul Schmidt). The drawings attracted the attention of the international art group Phases founded by Edouard Jaguer who gathered artists inspired by surrealists and Lautréamont. The young artist enrolled in this group and contributed to the Phases magazine. Allegedly, he was expelled several years later as his art was getting too extreme, which sounds a bit weird for the group inspired by The Songs of Maldoror.

Fig. 10. Mad Mongols album cover 

Fig. 11. tokyoartbeat.com

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Click HERE for the amazing and absurd erotism of Fièvres Nocturnes, by Toshio Saeki

Sources: antoine-b.com; strasbourg-passions-et-elegance.eu; timeless-shop.com; anagrambooks.com

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