Balthus | Balthus (1908-2001)
html Balthus, who died at the age of 193, has always been labeled with multiple obvious characteristics, such as: "Love cats as much as life", "Adolescent perverted painter", "Oriental plot", etc. . Picasso called him "the greatest Western painter of the 20th century."Young Balthus
Balthus was born into a Polish nobleman, and the poet Rilke was a close friend of his mother. When he was very young, there were celebrities in the Paris art world such as the Symbolist Nabi painter Bonnard, the Fauvist painter Matisse and the musician Stravinsky in his living room.
Balthus always has some "amazing works" that bring him a mixed reputation. The dark tones, mundane scenery and traditional themes are full of overt sexual tendencies.
Balthus Window
Balthus, called "the greatest painter of the 20th century" by Picasso, was born in Paris in 1908 to a Polish aristocratic family. His father was an art historian and painter, and his mother was also painting. Very successful. He became famous very early, but his creation continued until his death in 2001.
In 1934, Balthus held his first personal exhibition in Paris. Inspired by Francis Bacon and Courbet, he painted a large number of adolescent girls to show their physical and psychological struggles. At that time, this almost voyeuristic perspective caused huge controversy in Paris.
And his style with dual characteristics of classical and romantic attracted a group of artists with the same soul as him at that time, including Picasso. Balthus has never stopped depicting women. After living in seclusion in Switzerland in the late 1970s, Balthus's works became more charming and delicate. The last unfinished work created by
while living in Switzerland. He died here in 2001.
As Balthus's paintings matured, the smooth and dense textures, dark tones, and clear outlines of figures all showed that he had gradually left the Impressionist style, but it also contained a dark and turbulent mood, fixed In the image of a young girl.
Balthus Alice
Although his portraits are realistic works, they always create a personality for the models, and the poses of the characters are often presented in an exaggerated way.
On the one hand, Balthus attracted the world's attention through sensational themes; on the other hand, he revealed his interest in describing human desires in his works. The women are described as frightened, disturbed, and sexually suggestive.
Balthus’s works in his later years are highly controversial, such as the 2,000 Polaroid photos taken when he was 80 years old. The girl in the photo, Anna, served as a model for Balthus between the ages of 8 and 16. The media said the controversial photos would be a "feast" for pedophiles.
It is reported that Balthus took photos to prepare for the painting. Model Anna Wahli and the artist's family have agreed to exhibit and publish the photos. Most of the photos show Anna, in which the teenage girl reclines on lounge chairs, beds and chairs.
The Golden Years
There was a brief series shot while Anna was in the shower, however, Anna was never shown naked in the photos. There are also photos of views from a studio window, still life details, and a cat and a dog.
These photos are the original reference materials for Balthus's paintings. He used to paint on models first, and then continue to complete the creation alone. In the last years of his life, his eyesight and dexterity had diminished to the point where he had to stop painting, so he turned to photography.
Girl in front of the window
Teresa in a dream
Are photos of minors’ breasts obscene or art? Balthus himself did not seem to consider these photographs to be art. But because they are records of Balthus's final years, they are of great art historical value.
Yet the belief remains deeply ingrained that moral wrongdoing can arise when unpleasant desires come to mind, and that instead of simply condemning ourselves, we censor our thoughts so harshly that they even slightly If you have abnormal thoughts, you will punish and humiliate yourself.
We identify desires that we would never act upon as symptoms of moral dysfunction (or "sin," if framed in religious terms). As a result, we would rather not confront works such as those of Balthus, which might free us from unnecessary desires.
We live in a world saturated with sexualized images, especially in pop culture, music and advertising. We are even more protective of our children, recognizing childhood as a particularly vulnerable time. Yet we don’t know how to determine (and agree upon) the lines between what is acceptable and what is not, what is tasteful and what is objectionable.
This situation creates social and individual behavioral pressures. Although the topic of childhood sexual development was raised by Freud as early as the 1890s, our reactions today are more swayed by cultural precedents and strong emotions than by assessing what is beneficial. based on children's knowledge.
Balthus later understood the distress his works caused to viewers, but he said he was innocent and that it was the association with pornography that led to people's reactions. Balthus is not innocent, but in the art world, we don’t view works about children and sexual themes with such clear eyes.
Audiences may feel a kind of mental discomfort when they first come into contact with Balthus's paintings, because the first thing we see from his paintings is a "weird stillness".
In his indoor portraits, the light is stable and hazy, the figures’ bodies are twisted, and their expressions are slightly hostile. If there are more than two figures, there is no communication between them.
His landscape paintings, whether they are the scenery of Rossinière or the street scenes of Paris, all express a specific moment. There are no flowing objects, and even the sunlight seems to be frozen. He represents stagnation in life, and stagnation is a ritual.
It can be said that these paintings of his are neither "modern" nor "classical". Artaud, the master of cruel drama, said in the article, "Between the surrealist revolution and the classical academic school, the difference between his works Revolutionary in that he gave new meaning to the mystical tradition."
Art history defines him as a painter of figurative paintings. Representational painting, a genre of painting that emerged after World War II, abandoned bright color expressions and pursued the exploration of human instinct, thereby reflecting the misery of the world.
How to understand the inner and outer aspects of figurative painting? The emotions in figurative painting are restrained, not the direct expression of one's feelings like romanticism, because only with restraint can there be solemnity. It can be roughly analogized to symbols, whose functions are to refer and communicate.
Japanese woman at the red table
Roland Barthes’ definition of Eastern art is the “empire of symbols”. Oriental art gives Balthus's paintings an "intimate sanctity".
This is a kind of non-oppressive sublimity. As mentioned above, it is a kind of trust and grant of communication. The process of trust and granting is gradual and intensive, and through the paintings, the appreciator gradually enters into a conversation with the painter himself.
Balthus admired Eastern art. He mentioned the state of "the unity of things and myself" more than once, pursuing communication with nature, becoming one with characters, and expressing himself through images. What he wanted to express was what was behind things. , based on the category of "artistic conception" in ancient Chinese painting theory.
He agreed with Cézanne : "A painter can create excellent works while ensuring that his private life does not attract attention. The painter should remain in the shadows.""
Nude and Cat
Persistence in the wave: "I have never liked Surrealism"
Balthus was a devout Catholic. In the 20th century, when modern and post-modern schools were competing to make their mark in the painting world, he He also insists that he is a religious painter: "No matter how people talk about my works and myself, I am always a religious painter. "
Balthus, or let's change his name - Count Balthazar Klosowski de Rolla. His parents were princesses enfeoffed by the Polish royal family. As a noble family, he has the spirit of With noble blood, there is no doubt that his love and persistence in traditional art are deeply influenced by his family.
His father is an art historian and his mother is a painter. The family environment has brought him full artistic influence. . Bonner . The dancer Nijinsky and the composer Stravinsky were all guests in his home
He had a very good personal relationship with the poet Rilke, who respected him as his "spiritual father". Wrote the preface to the illustration collection "Mi Zi" published when he was a teenager.
Some of the illustrations in "Mi Zi": Balthus dedicated this book to a classmate of his who had the same experience as Balthus. The tragedy of the lost kitten
.But Balthus never really learned painting. His father's friend, the painter Bonnard, suggested not to send Balthus to art school, so Balthus first went to the Louvre to copy ancient paintings. French painter Poussin was his first teacher. The stability and rationality in Poussin's paintings profoundly affected his creation.
Then he went to Tuscany, Italy to copy murals, where he met Francesca. of frescoes. Operated in Balthus' paintings. The distinct imprint of Francesca can be seen in the location, color and lighting of the scenery, the statuesque figures and the clumsy body movements.
After returning to Paris, he made friends with Giacometti. , Monet , Matisse, Picasso and other modernist painters, and modernist writers and philosophers such as Gide, Sartre and Camus
Francesca. The Nativity of Christ
山
Artists in the early 20th century were deeply impacted by the trend of modernism. The publication of the Surrealist Manifesto announced that some people in the art world had taken up the banner of a complete break with tradition. In the past few decades, one subversive genre after another has appeared on the stage of art history.
Amidst such a powerful trend, Balthus remained unmoved, still sticking to his figurative painting and pursuing a path to the end. Determination seems to be somewhat "Borderline" stubbornness.
When he returned to Paris in 1946, he was shocked that "everyone imitated Picasso" because he was unwilling to imitate Picasso and follow the trend of "Picassoism". Some people even accused him. is the law Sith painter.
But his not appreciating modern Western art does not mean that he does not appreciate past Western art. His paintings are deeply influenced by past painters such as Poussin and Francesca, and it is inevitable. It absorbed the techniques of modern painters such as Cézanne.
"I don't want people to think of me as a Chinese or Japanese painter. I am still a Western painter. I am a Western painter. By chance, when observing nature, I have the same perspective as traditional and contemporary Chinese painters.
…their table The way of expression is accurate and specific, which is a completely different communication method from abstract art . From a certain perspective, all creations include the process of abstraction, and today's abstract art has become a pure aesthetic behavior. , lost the deep connotation "
room
porn? Pedophilia? What is obscene is the gaze of the viewer
The sexual connotation in Balthus's paintings is an unavoidable topic. Sex is an eternal topic, but it is always a little helpless to mention it. The nudity in his paintings attracted considerable criticism.
In "Cathy's Dressing", Cathy is wearing a bathrobe, with her front naked and her legs crossed, standing diagonally in front of the dressing table. In "Alice", Alice exposes her left breast and her left foot is on a chair. Combing the wet hair on the left side with both hands, the girl in "Guitar Lesson" is lying on the lap of the female teacher. The female teacher is holding her hair with one hand and supporting the girl's leg with the other. The painting "Teresa in Dreams" that was asked to be taken down was actually quite implicit.
"Cathy's Dressing": Fascinated by Emily Brontë 's novel "Wuthering Heights", Balthus made a set of illustration sketches for the book but was still not satisfied with it, and created oil paintings. "Cathy's Dressing."
Balthus once conveyed to his friend Camus that appreciating and expressing eroticism was his potential second personality.
The eroticism in his paintings mainly comes from a "sense of voyeurism". The unnatural body movements of the girls can naturally be understood by viewers as "posing" (to use this word), and the boldness of these movements seems to add a sense of pandering to the people in the painting.
In addition to the windows (classic voyeuristic imagery), "others" (such as the children pulling the curtains in "Room"), and "others" (such as those cats with stiff limbs) that appear frequently in the painting, these " The general image of "eyes" is juxtaposed with the boldly moving figures, giving the real viewer the illusion of voyeurism.
was accused of "pedophilia" because Balthus preferred to show girls rather than mature women. When asked why, he said that the bodies of girls attracted him more than those of mature women, because they were more pure and innocent. He did not paint imaginative scenes, he painted real people, "I just admire their innocent bodies more."
Her second wife Setsuko Yamada was asked what she thought of rumors of pedophilia and replied: "(Should I care) about rumors of pedophilia? If it's not true, so what? Balthus The perspective on this is completely different. "
"Eroticism is a very subtle thing. I'm not like Georges Bataille . There are similar studies, but I feel that eroticism has nothing to do with sex, and it is completely different from pornography. The eroticism in my paintings exists in the eyes of the viewer, in the mind and imagination. St. Paul said: 'What is obscene is. The gaze of the viewer. '"
As for why Balthus is called a "cat painter", first of all, it is because the alienation and eroticism in his paintings are very cat-like, and secondly, of course, because he is a cat lover. His paintings are full of cats! cat!
"Elvis": "This title is derived from "Romeo and Juliet", which mentions the 'Cat Prince'. In Paris, many people say that I have cat characteristics."
Balthus said: "Cat , lying in an armchair, or sitting At the table, with their eyes half-open, they must have felt that time was extending infinitely, dissolving, and the relationship between everything was strangely twisted, reversed, reversed and split.
Girl and Cat
Balthus. Cat Looking Mirror
"It is a close demon servant, but you can't catch their gaze. Every time you find it is so sharp and so empty, you will be surprised. A kind of lost gaze, staring at the future, looking through you. , will turn you into nothing..."
Finally, Balthus is really like a cat, very cute.
The following excerpt is from "Dialogues of Balthus" (edited by [Italian] Constantini)
Q: What movies do you like?
A: There is a movie called "Alan Resnais" that bored me to death, and now I can finally talk about it...
Q: ...but that sketch (referring to "Alexander on the Glass"). "Zhong Xia Hai") was created in 1494. How could the eleven-year-old Raphael complete such an ingenious and exquisite painting?
A: Raphael was a child genius. Like you?
A: Don't be ridiculous.
Q: What do you think of Dali?
A: He is a funny guy and I like him personally.
Q: Dali said he never slept with Gala. .
A: He's a classy man, at least in this regard.
Q: Do you like Breton?
A: He's smart and funny, but unfortunately a little annoying.
Q: What do you think of the prevalence of sexual depictions in Moravian novels?
A: Not interested at all.
Q: A casual question: What is the connection between the eroticism of Moravia and the eroticism shown in some of your paintings?
A: No connection at all.
Q:You don’t like Andy Warhol ?
A: Don't like it. I just think he is particularly interested in money.
Q: Can you tell me what you think of Modigliani’s nude portraits?
A: I'm a little annoyed by this guy.
Q: Why?
A: He is too pretentious.
— THE END —
pictures and text come from the Internet, and the copyright belongs to the original author
