Balthus

Balthazar Klossovsky was born in 1908 in Paris , where his parents arrived from Breslau in Silesia five years before his birth. Father - Erich Klossowski ( Erich Klossowski , 1875-1946), an artist and art critic of Polish origin, an expert on the work of Domier , was the son of a Ragnitist lawyer Leonard Klossovsky. Mother - Elizabeth Dorothea Spyro ; 1886-1969), a Jewish artist known among friends as Baladina , was one of the thirteen children of the synagogue cantor , composer of liturgical music Abram-Bera Spiro (1833-1903), who moved with his wife Fane Form (1837-1901) and older children from Korelichi of the Novogrudok district of the Minsk province in Breslau in 1873 . ^{[1] [2]} In Breslau, Abram-Ber Spiro was appointed chief cantor of the White Stork Synagogue , one of the two main synagogues of the city. ^{[3] [4] [5] The} parents were introduced by the brother of Baladina and friend of Erich Klossovsky, the artist Eugen Spiro (Eugene Spiro) ( Eugene Spiro , 1874-1972), at that time the husband of Tilla Durie .

Friends at home were Andre Gide , Pierre Bonnard , Andre Derain , Maurice Denis . During the First World War, the Klossovsky family settled in Berlin , where Balthazar's parents divorced. After a divorce in 1917, Baladina Klossovsky entered into a long-term romantic relationship with the poet Rainer Maria Rilke , which lasted until his death in 1926 . In 1921, Rilke published a series of drawings created by the 12-year-old Balthus of the cat Mitsu who escaped from the house along with his own introduction.

In 1935-1939, the artist created a series of portraits of the girl Teresa Blanchard , the most famous of which is the painting " Dreaming Teresa " (1938).

In the 1930s Balthus, returning to Paris, joined the surrealist circle and became close to Cocteau , Artaud , Miro , Picasso and Giacometti . The shocking canvas “Guitar Lesson” in 1934 brought fame to the aspiring artist in avant-garde circles. In the works of those years, unnatural stagnation with almost photographic accuracy of the figures depicted gives even everyday subjects a touch of mystical enchantment. By the beginning of the 1940s the artist finally departs from the principles of surrealism and creates a vividly individual manner, which is sometimes compared with " magical realism " in literature.

Since the 1940s Balthus's attention is drawn to the theme of awakening femininity. He introduces into his canvases symbolic motifs (mirror, butterfly, cat) and figures of teenage girls “caught” in a home setting in laid-back seductive poses. In those same years, he draws up a series of performances by Artaud (Chenchi, 1944) and Jean-Louis Barrot (The State of the Siege, 1948). In the years 1961-77. Balthus heads the representative office of the French Academy at the Medici Villa in Rome, studies and processes classic pieces such as Piero della Francesca and Caravaggio , and seeks to give his paintings a fresco color. Minister of Culture Andre Malraux called Balthus "our second ambassador to Italy."

In 1956, after a large-scale exhibition at the New York Museum of Modern Art , Balthus was talked about in the United States. In the last forty years of his life, the artist is fond of Far Eastern culture in general and Japanese fine art in particular. He often visits the land of the rising sun and finds there a life partner. In 1968-73 creates a number of paintings on the plot of the card players, traditional for the 17th century. In 1983-84 retrospectives of Balthus's work were magnificently held in the Paris center of Georges Pompidou and in the Metropolitan Museum of Art . In 1991, Balthus was awarded the Imperial Prize . At that time, he was the only living whose work was on permanent display at the Louvre (it was bequeathed to the museum by Picasso himself). [one]

In 1996, Canadian documentary filmmaker Damian Pettigrew released a film about the artist, Balthus Through the Looking Glass; he was awarded several prestigious film awards. A few more documentary films have been shot about the artist. Balthus died in 2001 at the 93rd year of his life. President Chirac attended his funeral and sang Bono from U2 .

About the artist at different times wrote Antonin Artaud , Yves Bonfois , Pierre Jean Juve , Albert Camus , Jean Claire , Pierre Klossovsky , Rainer Maria Rilke , Rene Char , Jean Starobinsky , Federico Fellini , Paul Eluard and others.

• Shan Sa , a French-born Chinese writer, was Secretary of Balthus from 1994 to 1996 . His wife, Setsuko, introduced her to Japanese culture. During this time, Shan Sa wrote her first novel in French, Gates of Heavenly Peace ( 1997 , Goncourt Prize for the first novel).
• Balthus (under the name Balthus) is mentioned in Thomas Harris ' famous novel "Hannibal" (9th paragraph of 54th chapter). The author's fantasy made him a cousin, i.e., a cousin of Dr. Hannibal Lecter . The reason for this could be such a plot element in a series of Harris novels, such as the marriage of Robert Lecter, Uncle Hannibal, a French artist, and Japanese lady Murasaki.

• Antonen Artaud . Balthus exhibition at the Pierre Gallery . Rene Ball. Stinger in the bud // Space in other words: French poets of the XX century about the image in art. St. Petersburg: Ivan Limbakh Publishing House , 2005, p.40-41, 175—176
• Alexey Mokrousov. The Music of Silence, or Time of Mirrors // Foreign Literature. 1999. No 12. [2]

• The Heinz Butler documentary is German. Balthus - Glatte, reiche Schönheit ; 2003

• Website about Balthus (inaccessible link)
• Works in museums of the world
• Eroticism in the works of Balthus
• Balthus on the IMDB website
• D. Pettigrew film on IMDB
• Balthus video (link not available)
• Lecture by Irina Kulik at the Garage Museum. Balthus - Tsuguharu Fujita