Balthus
Balthus | |
|---|---|
| Balthasar Klossowski de Rola | |
Balthus by Damian Pettigrew (1996) | |
| Born | Balthasar Klossowski February 29, 1908 Paris, France |
| Died | February 18, 2001 (aged 92) Rossinière, Switzerland |
| Known for | Painting, drawing, watercolor |
| Notable work | The Street (1933–1935) The Mountain (1937) Nude Before a Mirror (1955) |
| Spouse | Antoinette de Watteville
(m. 1937; div. 1966)Setsuko Klossowska de Rola
(m. 1967) |
| Children | Stanislas Klossowski de Rola, Thaddeus Klossowski de Rola, Harumi Klossowska de Rola |
| Awards | Praemium Imperiale |
Balthasar Klossowski (French: [klɔsɔfski]; February 29, 1908 – February 18, 2001), known as Balthus (French: [baltys]), was a Polish-French modern artist. He is known for his erotically charged images of young girls, and the dreamlike quality of his imagery.
Throughout his career, Balthus rejected the usual conventions of the art world. He insisted that his paintings should be seen and not read about, resisting attempts to build a biographical profile. Towards the end of his life he took part in a series of interviews with the neurobiologist Semir Zeki, conducted at his chalet in Rossinière, Switzerland and at the Palazzo Farnese in Rome. They were published in 1995 under the title La Quête de l'essentiel. In them he gives some of his views on art, painting, and his contemporaries.