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Subject: Balthus Dies
Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2001 15:01:29 -0800 (PST)
From: Galya Diment <galya@u.washington.edu>
To: Nabokov <NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu>
T
Since VN admitted liking Balthus, I thought his obituary may be
appropriate for the list. Galya Diment
Artist Balthus Dies, Aged 92
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 4:25 p.m. ET
GENEVA (AP) -- Balthus, one of the 20th century's greatest
realist painters best known for his erotic -- some have said
pornographic -- portrayal of adolescent beauties, has died. He was just
short of his 93rd birthday.
Balthus, who had been ailing for some time, died Sunday
afternoon at his home in the mountain village of Rossiniere, local
mayor Daniel Martin said. No cause of death was immediately given.
French president Jacques Chirac, who met the painter
several
times, paid tribute to Balthus as a ``genius who aroused admiration.''
``Balthus had a deep, individual, subtle character who
detested the banal,'' Chirac said in a statement.
Balthus inspired and influenced the art world for more
than
six decades during which he completed some 300 canvases. But as a
person, he long remained a mystery to all but a few intimate friends.
``Balthus is a painter of whom nothing is known,'' was his
most often quoted self-analysis -- given to organizers of a 1968 art
exhibition at London's Tate Gallery.
There was even uncertainty over his name. Balthus called
himself Count Balthazar Klossowski de Rola, saying that he came from
an ancient Polish family whose male members had the rank
of count. The Rola coat of arms was created in 1044 to commemorate a
family marriage, he said.
But gossip persisted that he invented the title and Rola
was
merely an adaptation of the Lake Geneva village of Rolle where Balthus
lived with his first wife.
Balthus was born to a family of artists in Paris on
February
29, 1908 -- a date which allowed him to joke on his 92nd birthday that
he was in fact only 23.
In a newspaper interview, Balthus once regretted the fact
that he was born in the 20th century, saying that ``I belong much more
to the 19th century.''
Balthus' first published work was at the age of 12 -- a
collection of 40 sketches about his lost cat, called ``Mitsou.'' The
poet Rainer Maria Rilke -- his mother's lover -- was so impressed that
he wrote the accompanying foreword.
At his first one-man show in Paris in 1934, Balthus caused
a
stir with his erotically suggestive ``Guitar Lesson'' -- a painting of a
half-naked girl spread-eagled over the knees of an older woman who is
sexually fondling her, a discarded guitar nearby.
He subsequently tried to distance himself from the
painting
-- admitting it might be considered mildly pornographic and saying he
had painted it in order to attract attention.
But the blatant sexuality of half-clad maidens became
Balthus' trademark, with other provocative works including ``Alice''
(1933), ``Toilette de Cathy'' (1933) and ``Andre Derain'' (1936).
Balthus also won wide acclaim for his dreamlike Parisian
street scenes and his conventional landscapes -- heavily influenced by
Swiss Alpine scenery, as in his 1937 painting, ``The Mountain.''
In 1976, he moved to the tiny Swiss village of Rossiniere,
near the jet-set resort of Gstaad, where he found the tranquility and
anonymity he craved. He lived in the aptly named Grand Chalet -- a huge
and elaborate wooden 18th-century building -- with his second wife, the
Japanese artist Setsuko.
Martin, the mayor, said Balthus had returned home only
recently after a bout in hospital. A longtime heavy smoker, Balthus was
dogged by frailty in his final years and was cared for by Setsuko -- 35
years his junior. The couple had one daughter, Harumi, and a son who
died n childhood. Balthus also had two sons from his first marriage.
For decades, Balthus shunned public contact. He only
granted
occasional media interviews in later life when he collaborated in a
644-page biography ``Balthus'' by an American cultural historian,
Nicholas Fox Weber. He also authorized Jean Clair, director of the
Picasso Museum in Paris, and Virginie Monnier to compile a collection
of his works.
He also agreed to publication of photographs of a lavish
fancy dress party for his 92nd birthday, attended by actor Tony Curtis,
rock group U2's Bono, Nicholas Romanov of the last Russian dynasty and
Baron Philippe de Rothschild. And he made a rare public appearance in
May 2000 to mark the inauguration of a new local railway.
Balthus was friendly with many French writers and
intellectuals, including Albert Camus. He was an admirer of Pablo
Picasso -- who bought his 1937 ``Les Enfants.''
``Balthus is so much better than all these young artists
who
do nothing but copy me,'' Picasso once said. ``He is a real painter.''
Subject: Balthus Dies
Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2001 15:01:29 -0800 (PST)
From: Galya Diment <galya@u.washington.edu>
To: Nabokov <NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu>
T
Since VN admitted liking Balthus, I thought his obituary may be
appropriate for the list. Galya Diment
Artist Balthus Dies, Aged 92
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 4:25 p.m. ET
GENEVA (AP) -- Balthus, one of the 20th century's greatest
realist painters best known for his erotic -- some have said
pornographic -- portrayal of adolescent beauties, has died. He was just
short of his 93rd birthday.
Balthus, who had been ailing for some time, died Sunday
afternoon at his home in the mountain village of Rossiniere, local
mayor Daniel Martin said. No cause of death was immediately given.
French president Jacques Chirac, who met the painter
several
times, paid tribute to Balthus as a ``genius who aroused admiration.''
``Balthus had a deep, individual, subtle character who
detested the banal,'' Chirac said in a statement.
Balthus inspired and influenced the art world for more
than
six decades during which he completed some 300 canvases. But as a
person, he long remained a mystery to all but a few intimate friends.
``Balthus is a painter of whom nothing is known,'' was his
most often quoted self-analysis -- given to organizers of a 1968 art
exhibition at London's Tate Gallery.
There was even uncertainty over his name. Balthus called
himself Count Balthazar Klossowski de Rola, saying that he came from
an ancient Polish family whose male members had the rank
of count. The Rola coat of arms was created in 1044 to commemorate a
family marriage, he said.
But gossip persisted that he invented the title and Rola
was
merely an adaptation of the Lake Geneva village of Rolle where Balthus
lived with his first wife.
Balthus was born to a family of artists in Paris on
February
29, 1908 -- a date which allowed him to joke on his 92nd birthday that
he was in fact only 23.
In a newspaper interview, Balthus once regretted the fact
that he was born in the 20th century, saying that ``I belong much more
to the 19th century.''
Balthus' first published work was at the age of 12 -- a
collection of 40 sketches about his lost cat, called ``Mitsou.'' The
poet Rainer Maria Rilke -- his mother's lover -- was so impressed that
he wrote the accompanying foreword.
At his first one-man show in Paris in 1934, Balthus caused
a
stir with his erotically suggestive ``Guitar Lesson'' -- a painting of a
half-naked girl spread-eagled over the knees of an older woman who is
sexually fondling her, a discarded guitar nearby.
He subsequently tried to distance himself from the
painting
-- admitting it might be considered mildly pornographic and saying he
had painted it in order to attract attention.
But the blatant sexuality of half-clad maidens became
Balthus' trademark, with other provocative works including ``Alice''
(1933), ``Toilette de Cathy'' (1933) and ``Andre Derain'' (1936).
Balthus also won wide acclaim for his dreamlike Parisian
street scenes and his conventional landscapes -- heavily influenced by
Swiss Alpine scenery, as in his 1937 painting, ``The Mountain.''
In 1976, he moved to the tiny Swiss village of Rossiniere,
near the jet-set resort of Gstaad, where he found the tranquility and
anonymity he craved. He lived in the aptly named Grand Chalet -- a huge
and elaborate wooden 18th-century building -- with his second wife, the
Japanese artist Setsuko.
Martin, the mayor, said Balthus had returned home only
recently after a bout in hospital. A longtime heavy smoker, Balthus was
dogged by frailty in his final years and was cared for by Setsuko -- 35
years his junior. The couple had one daughter, Harumi, and a son who
died n childhood. Balthus also had two sons from his first marriage.
For decades, Balthus shunned public contact. He only
granted
occasional media interviews in later life when he collaborated in a
644-page biography ``Balthus'' by an American cultural historian,
Nicholas Fox Weber. He also authorized Jean Clair, director of the
Picasso Museum in Paris, and Virginie Monnier to compile a collection
of his works.
He also agreed to publication of photographs of a lavish
fancy dress party for his 92nd birthday, attended by actor Tony Curtis,
rock group U2's Bono, Nicholas Romanov of the last Russian dynasty and
Baron Philippe de Rothschild. And he made a rare public appearance in
May 2000 to mark the inauguration of a new local railway.
Balthus was friendly with many French writers and
intellectuals, including Albert Camus. He was an admirer of Pablo
Picasso -- who bought his 1937 ``Les Enfants.''
``Balthus is so much better than all these young artists
who
do nothing but copy me,'' Picasso once said. ``He is a real painter.''