Balthasar Klossowski de Rola (Balthus), 1908-2001: The King of Cats (Taschen Basic Art) [Paperback]

Gilles Neret (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2003

FRENCH-GERMAN PAINTER COUNT BALTHASAR KLOSSOWSKI DE ROLA (1908-2001), KNOWN AS BALTHUS, SHOCKED THE PARISIAN ART WORLD IN 1934 WITH HIS DREAMY, SENSUAL, NEO-CLASSICAL PORTRAITS OF NYMPHETS AT A TIME WHEN SURREALISM AND ABSTRACTION WERE DE RIGUEUR. AS A PROVOCATEUR, BALTHUS WAS OFTEN SCORNED; AS AN ARTIST, HE WAS WIDELY EMBRACED AS A PRODIGY. IN RESPONSE TO CRITICS OF HIS REALIST STYLE, BALTHUS SAID: "THE REAL ISN'T WHAT YOU THINK YOU SEE. ONE CAN BE A REALIST OF THE UNREAL AND A FIGURATIVE PAINTER OF THE INVISIBLE." HIS EROTIC, POETIC PAINTINGS LIVE ON AS EXAMPLES OF THE BEST FIGURATIVE WORK OF THE MODERN ERA.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Taschen (November 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 382282206X
• ISBN-13: 978-3822822067
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7.2 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #777,026 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good reproduction of the paintings, unsatisfying text, June 12, 2010

By 

Christopher Culver - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Balthasar Klossowski de Rola (Balthus), 1908-2001: The King of Cats (Taschen Basic Art) (Paperback)

TASCHEN's "Basic Art" series consists of fairly inexpensive, full-colour introductions to dozens of painters running just under 100 pages each. This instalment by Gilles Neret presents Balthus, whose oeuvre is for paintings what Nabokov's novel LOLITA was for literature: the sexuality of the adolescente. Neret gets Balthus' infamous painting "The Guitar Lesson" out of the way quickly, as this alone among the painter's works was meant to shock. In the main, Balthus' paintings are not shocking because the artist meant them so, but rather because his perennial concerns strike some viewers as inappropriate. In his text, Neret sometimes quotes from those prominent figures who were willing to take a stand for Balthus, such as Rene Char, Richard Gere and Antoin Artaud.

The works are generally presented in fine colour, with only a handful of paintings like "The Room" in less than ideal reproduction. I only wish that Neret had presented them in chronological order instead of jumbling them all up. This would have allowed the reader to see straightaway Balthus' stylistic evolution, which is pretty interesting (always figurative, but less and less intense and ever more stylized). At least the classic paintings that Balthus alludes to, such as the "Villeneuve-les-Avignons Pieta" for "The Guitar Lesson", are often presented alongside.

While the paintings are fine, what really weakens this book is Neret's writing style, which is rambling and vacuous. Then there are strange assertions, such as that the classic painting "Gabrielle d'Estrees et une de ses soeurs" is a celebration of lesbianism (which historians would scoff at), or that "The Game of Cards" is Balthus' most disturbing painting (why?). The coverage of each period of Balthus' life is also inconsistent. For most of the book Neret leaves biography aside, respecting Balthus' wish that people simply "look at the paintings". But from the 1960s, Neret becomes all too passionate about how Balthus' travels and second marriage are reflected in his paintings.

The "Basic Art" series is a great way to inexpensively familiarize yourself with the major figures of painting, but this instalment could have been a lot better.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars At his best he can be brilliant, September 27, 2011

By 

C. B Collins Jr. (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Balthasar Klossowski de Rola (Balthus), 1908-2001: The King of Cats (Taschen Basic Art) (Paperback)

This Taschen publication is full of reproductions of the work of Balthus at a reasonable price. Balthus has been a controversial artist for almost eighty years, primarily because his frequent subject matter is the nude or partially nude young woman, often on the very verge of womanhood in that period between childhood and adolescence. The works have been under attack at times for their depiction of these young girl women in poses that might be interpreted as provocative. However in his later years Balthus claimed that these beautiful young women were like icons, beautiful earthly images that attest to a spiritual beyond. The contemplation of these beautiful nude girls, certainly one of the most beautiful visions for human beings, acts as a window into a spiritual reality or communion with the natural forces of nature and the universe. Contemplation of the beautiful girls in the year they become women acts as a path to a higher spiritual reality. This book offers an opportunity to test these two hypotheses, are these sexually charged paintings of children or are they icons acting as paths toward a higher spiritual reality? A view of these paintings would support both hypotheses. The painting `Guitar Lesson' is certainly a challenge to the icon hypothesis for even 77 years after it was painted it is shocking. Yet `Girl at a Window' painted in 1957 would be a fine example of the assertion of Balthus that the image is a path toward a higher spiritual awareness.

Balthus on several occasions related his debt to the works of Piero Della Francesca and this is very revealing for Balthus' approach to the figure in space is very similar for the Renaissance fresco painter. The compositional structures are tight, geometric, use perspective, but also feel enclosed, much as in the work of Della Francesca. The handling of the paint is also much like Della Francisca for it is flat and dry, there appears to be only minimal medium used, and thus flat effects are created, much like in a fresco. The painting "The Street" is often identified as using both figure and ground, perspective and tone in the manner of della Francesca. However, the wonder painting `the Room' also reveals the monumentality of the human figure that della Francesca was able to achieve.

There are over 90 illustrations in the book displaying the wide range of his work. When Balthus was at this best, he was superb and often sublime. "Girl in Red and Green (the Candlestick)" is a solid study in light and dark. Balthus contrasts the lighted side of the girl's face with her dark green shirt whereas the contrasts the darker shadowed side of her face against a bold red shirt sleeve. The compositional structure of "Nude with a Cat (Nude with a Basin)" is absolutely perfect and brilliant. The balance of the curves and diagonals of the nude against the horizontals and verticals of the bedroom furniture is exceptional. There are four landscapes included in this book that have that unreal silence that permeates his work. This is an excellent collection of the work of a mysterious man.