Balthus - Cats and Girls

Balthus, Cats and Girls at the Met

jameskalm

Published on Sep 26, 2013

James Kalm has been a fan of the Work of Balthus (Balthasar Klossowski de Rola, 1908-2001) since the late 1960s. Representing a confluence of restrained classic figuration and Surrealistic erotic narrative, Balthus looms as a painterly enigma over the second half of twentieth century art.

This exhibition presents works that were painted in France between the mid-1930s and 1960, and focuses on the repeated theme of "Cats and Girls."

A series of ink drawings created when the artist was only eleven-years-old, and thought lost, are also presented.

24 Comments

Eve Griffin 3 months ago

So great to see! Wonderful commentary. Thank you for making and posting this. Unfortunately, the constant movement of the camera made me nauseous and I couldn't finish watching.

2

Simone Gad 4 years ago

another beautiful exhibition-love Balthazar and this series of cats and girls. wonderful video also

1

blackthorn 3 years ago

thanks for the videos. I often find myself pausing to look at the work, which is fine, but many times there is not a straight on shot of the whole piece which can be frustrating. It is nice you move around at angles so to see the textures and other otherwise wouldn't be able to see. and who is Kate?

1

Termini Di Camilla 3 years ago

Grande pituitary.

1

Michael Roberts 3 years ago

Thank you James.

1

Hanson Smoker 4 years ago

thanks for this preview

1

Michele Vick 3 years ago

Balthazar = peso alert

1

Julio pirogi 4 weeks ago

an awful recording destroyed thieving in the Constanta moving, just a pity!

Ronald Chapman 5 months ago

Quite magnificently rich and sensuous paintings, with intelligent and sensitive commentary, unfortunately marred by a hurried an over-excited camera. Balthus demands silence and stillness, or a slow and steady zoom, with dissolves to details. The makings of a superb film, ruined by the execution.

PG Trappable 2 months ago

Museum of.... of... what? Please clarify

Gabriela Mayas 3 years ago

Very nice approach and comments. I love Balthus and you made him justice!

1

Kai Satsuma 3 years ago

Ah well, give this one a miss.

Miguel Conestoga Bosun 5 years ago

He had a unique way and style with the human figure. 

Jodie Manikin 5 years ago

Wish I was living in NY. I have loved Balthus for years and would surely be there now! Dr. Judie Manulkin ( Docent at The High Museum).

Luke Randall 5 years ago

I really enjoy your videos. Very informative and wonderfully reflective. Not to mention Balthus' extraordinary work.....mystic and enchanting

Ernesto Rodriguez 5 years ago

Thanks

Pieter Voodoo 5 years ago

Thank you

John Lewis 5 years ago

Meaty, rich figurative work. As was mentioned; timeless.

outface 5 years ago

so that's where fraud got his swag from....

Transcription

01:08

well welcome back viewers it's time for

01:12

another adventure in half-ass

01:13

productions and we've got a special

01:18

treat for you today we're up here at the

01:21

Metropolitan Museum

01:25

I'm gonna try to get in

01:28

and get some pictures of this show

01:31

Balthus cats and girls

01:37

well I got a late start this morning and

01:41

it was about an hour fighting my way

01:43

through the worst traffic in the Western

01:47

Hemisphere when I made it

01:51

I arrived late so we just got the last

01:54

part of the remarks and

01:59

only gonna have about 45 minutes so I'm

02:02

going to make a cursory run-through and

02:06

probably won't get a chance to mention

02:09

all titles

02:14

well this is actually kind of a narrow

02:17

selection of his work and they're saying

02:19

that it's all work that was payment in

02:20

France sisters in 1936 my guess was an

02:26

11 year old girl when he originally met

02:28

her this is one of the very famous

02:33

paintings it's not so Teresa so I

02:37

believe this is only from maybe the mid

02:40

30s to mid 50s this titled king of cats

02:46

1935 and I guess this is appropriate

02:50

because the title of the show is cats

02:52

and girls now I'll just read a little

02:56

bit from his wiki page Balthazar

03:04

Kandinsky

03:07

born 1908 and was a child prodigy

03:16

it's called portrait of Sheela Pickering

03:20

princess of cats my guess for a period

03:24

of time that

03:26

Malthus gave up his creative painting

03:29

and was only working as a commissioned

03:33

portrait artist and after few years of

03:39

that I get pretty tired

03:40

I like her forehead

03:51

as a young child he was actually his

03:54

family were friends with Rainer Maria

03:58

Rilke and he was sponsored by and new

04:03

people like Mary Matisse on Rajeev Jean

04:09

Cocteau is called Teresa on a bench seat

04:14

he always always got these adolescent

04:17

girls pose and very provocative

04:20

positions mistress in 1938 oil on

04:26

cardboard

04:32

well when I started going be art

04:35

students League I guess 1979 the Pierre

04:39

Matisse gallery was still in operation

04:41

at the for building aliens 41 East 57th

04:46

Street this is also Teresa 1939 this is

04:51

maybe one of his greatest pieces from

04:53

this period

04:56

Teresa dreaming 1938 anyway I remember

05:01

maybe 1979 going and seeing a show of

05:05

all toises latest paintings

05:18

and then a few years later they actually

05:22

had a major retrospective of his work

05:25

here at the mint

05:53

yes

06:02

so this is the salon to 1942 and it's

06:11

really a great example of his typical

06:14

narrative pieces and you can see where

06:18

some of these figures are definitely

06:21

inspired by some of the classic times

06:24

like with solo and Frangelico

06:29

but compositionally and look at this

06:34

curvy form here in the leg of the piano

06:38

and it's echoed in the back of this

06:40

chair it's kind of echoed in the back of

06:44

that figure as well so this will be

06:49

interesting we'll take a look at this

06:51

version salon too

06:57

and we'll compare it to this version

07:06

salon on

07:09

is that he often repeated his themes if

07:12

he found something that was good hazel

07:16

pencil drying under there oh he took out

07:20

the kitty cat

07:26

it's a beautiful little study the golden

07:30

days and

07:42

so golden day is 1944 246 and

07:52

among the young painters that I knew

07:56

Malthus was almost a secret cult figure

08:01

and I think he kind of represented dad

08:10

academic figuration that had sort of

08:14

strayed into kind of surrealism or some

08:16

kind of exotic narrative which made it

08:20

modern somehow stateside sleeping girl

08:24

1943 and also the fact that he

08:30

consciously had studied and was

08:35

influenced by the masters especially

08:40

Italian primitives I think made him even

08:42

more attractive still life with figure

08:49

no

08:51

as the still life is beautiful

08:57

and that my from the bread is great

09:02

well he was already known as an artist

09:05

when he was in his teens and we're gonna

09:09

try to get in and see some ink drawings

09:10

that he did when he was 11 and I'm

09:16

titled a card player

09:17

oh this looks like somebody that escaped

09:21

from a piero della Francesca painting

09:32

as well

09:34

and I like the

09:37

the split pattern on the blouse green

09:42

versus red

09:52

and they're kind of grayish green flesh

09:55

tones makes me think of my Tanya

10:27

well this is Salam 3 and

10:33

they say that this is when Balthus

10:35

returned to Paris in 1946 after the war

10:40

with his wife and two children but one

10:46

of the things a lot of painters

10:48

appreciate about Balthus is that you

10:52

know he was so committed to painting and

10:57

he would kind of obsessively work on

11:00

these paintings that they started to get

11:02

a very unusual nubby surface and somehow

11:09

there's a kind of a matter of

11:11

matter-of-fact quality that makes me

11:14

think of some corbeil notes

11:27

it's another nice piece nude with cat

11:32

and although they don't have any of his

11:35

great late pieces that were done in

11:37

casein as we go along but a chance to

11:40

see some of the other pieces that he

11:42

really builds a quite an extraordinary

11:44

surface on

11:59

this is titled the world 1947-1948 and

12:07

it's just beautifully painted I mean

12:11

well this definitely had a had a feeling

12:15

for his materials and

12:20

standing nude is almost like at an

12:23

Annunciation

12:36

this is the week of for Thursday's 1949

12:40

and

12:44

again this is another version some girl

12:47

with the arched back in the room there's

12:53

the cat

13:02

well this is the seatmate they've got the

13:05

becoming omitsu drawings things were

13:09

done while he was 11 Omega quick sweep

13:13

over them

13:21

I guess these were thought to be lost

13:27

and I would say that probably each one

13:29

of these pages is five by four inches

13:36

and the actual drawings are probably

13:40

about three by three inches Mitsu was

13:43

a calf that he found and this kind of

13:48

establishes his cat theme would be the

13:53

figurative elements here make me think

13:55

of you go but some that's got very nice

13:59

abstract layouts

14:04

this is a study for cat of the

14:09

méditerranée

14:11

and

14:14

this is a probably about as uh

14:16

surrealistic or fantasy-based as he ever

14:19

gets

14:23

and that is using great heavy weave

14:28

linen

14:32

this is one of his few very coloristic

14:35

pieces like the

14:38

rainbow is very untypical

15:28

so this is the fourth salon and this

15:35

represents work from 1953 to 1961 Valdez

15:41

left Paris to live at the Chateau de

15:43

chassis

15:48

and more than France

15:54

it's also a great example of his kind of

15:57

use of tonal painting and it's also nice

16:07

that uh he doesn't get carried away with

16:10

the details he just sort of does what he

16:12

needs to do to get the message across

16:14

and then leaves a lot of this almost

16:15

done unfinished so you have under

16:19

drawing coming through under painting

16:23

there's a lot of overworking

16:38

girl at a window 1955 now here we start

16:47

to see the nubby build up

16:54

but I think these are much less

16:57

psychologically impacted more of simple

17:00

figure studies this is a beautiful piece

17:13

The Moth 1959 to 1960 and

17:22

here we can see him starting to build up

17:25

his surfaces and now it's covering the

17:28

entire surface so he was obsessively

17:31

going back in and uh

17:33

we working Lee's I don't know almost

17:40

makes me think of a Milton Resnick

17:41

painting and his use of kind of

17:48

prepositional vectors and patterning is

17:50

nice this is titled the toilet and we

18:01

can see that he's actually left his

18:03

grinding in he was known as a great

18:06

great draftsman and a lot of I think the

18:11

reason that many painters love him is

18:14

that he was great at drawing with paint

18:23

and it's got very thin glazes over a

18:27

basic heavy ground to boil paint it's

18:33

not a crackle than this - oh this is one

18:38

of my favorite pieces this is in the

18:42

Gets permanent collection nude in front

18:49

of a mere 1955

19:05

and

19:08

this line is extraordinary

19:12

the shape of this hair compared against

19:16

the shape of her buttocks and the

19:22

molding of this fireplace mantel

19:28

great stuff

19:32

well we'll slide down this last wall

19:34

this is time to the game of patience

19:37

1954 and

19:44

again we've got our cat

19:49

but you can see that this Balthus

19:54

develops a style the figures in the

19:59

detail become subservient to just the

20:03

paint handling and again I think that

20:09

beyond his compositions beyond the kind

20:13

of erotic narratives and even beyond

20:18

just the texture of the paint there is a

20:21

quality of his his use of tone and shade

20:29

that recall someone like Amer on D

20:40

so this is titled to dream

20:47

you know and again she's got the kind of

20:50

Z

20:53

gray green flesh tones

21:01

and the one little Pompeian and the

21:08

figures have become almost manner deistic

21:13

least Islands

21:21

we bumped into Duncan Hanna here and

21:23

Duncan is a longtime fan and I know they

21:27

a figurative painter in his own right

21:28

why don't you give us a little

21:29

appreciation of Baltus well he's always

21:32

been a master to me I love this mix of

21:37

old-world painterly saneness Corbin

21:40

yes Bunko vine narratives mystery how

21:48

do you think this relates to some of the

21:50

contemporary figurative painting that's

21:52

being done by by younger artists here in

21:54

New York Baltus is so restrained and

21:59

subtle

22:00

I was just classier than anything

22:02

happening right now I'd say and there's

22:05

a timelessness yes obviously to these

22:07

paintings that you don't see in a lot of

22:09

contemporary art and he was obviously

22:11

going for the classical rather than just

22:13

the spectacular but it's but it's also

22:17

very much of its time I mean it's

22:20

interesting the World War two paintings

22:22

in there you'd never know the war was

22:24

happening yes hermetic world that he was

22:30

totally concentrated on and it's his own

22:33

world

22:34

and in a way I mean that's what every

22:36

artist could hope to do right create

22:39

their own world and Baltus didn't do it

22:42

I mean who did all right

22:44

thanks Duncan I had it thank you well I

22:48

was very nice of Duncan Hanna to give us

22:51

a little appreciation we got a couple of

22:53

more paintings we're gonna wrap up with

22:55

here this is girl in white smock 1955

23:02

and

23:06

this is nice he's kind of masked out his

23:09

forms in the face and

23:16

her white smog is basically just bare

23:19

canvas you can see that trypsin

23:23

stains the under painting that he's

23:25

built up there

23:30

than a chick

23:33

against nubby

23:37

this is one of the maybe the last piece

23:41

in the show

23:44

the cup of coffee

23:48

1959-1960 foil on canvas and

23:53

it's kind of uh

23:56

no but I cata me in that uh in certain

24:01

ways his use of pattern and even some of

24:03

the subdue colors kind of recall Matisse

24:09

but his figured kind of like Piero della

24:13

Francesca and then his his paint surface

24:18

is very obsessive but modern

24:25

this is a beautiful piece

24:29

here again you can still see that

24:31

they're just sketchy little paint lines

24:35

at Easton laid in his forms with

24:53

turquoise against the Vermicelli is nice

25:03

this is James calm according on wildest

25:09

cats and girls

25:15

at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

25:22

Thank You Kate

25:36

beautiful thank you