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Figurative paintings by Balthus can easily be misinterpreted. They
possess a distinct eroticism that had become all too easily regarded
as his hallmark. Therefore, they need to be seen alongside those
in which he concentrated upon landscape or portraiture and those
which constituted his theatre sets and costume designs for opera
and theatre, particularly Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte in
l950 as well as Antonin Artaud’s own production of Shelley’s
Les Cenci in l935. There are outstanding landscapes in which
there is a discernible Chinese influence, particularly in those
he painted from his studio in the Castle of Monte Calvello near
Viterbo.
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| Cosi fan tutte – Étude
pour le décor de l'acte I, scène I. 1950,
gouache. Private collection. Photo: J Hyde |
At the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, every aspect of the work of Balthus
is thoroughly explored. There are over 200 items in the extensive
catalogue. These include many paintings and drawings, which show
the virtuoso technical skills he employed to achieve his serious
intentions. The devotion that Balthus paid to the business of painting
is exemplary.
Among his many achievements clearly observable in the exhibition
is that in which he defended the great tradition of painting encapsulated
in the fresco painting of Piero Della Francesca. In l926, still
in his teens, he took the trouble to travel to Arezzo to paint his
versions of Della Francesca’s series inspired by ‘The
Legend of the True Cross’.
By doing so, he extolled the virtues of being a self-taught painter,
in no way associated with any art school. He trusted the age-old
method of studying the Old Masters of the Italian Renaissance.
There is a particularly eye-catching section devoted to the 14
pen and ink drawings that Balthus made while illustrating Emily
Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. These were selected by Balthus
himself from over 50 studies. In his own words you have a clear
description of the mood he wished to evoke, ‘I want to put
in them many things, tenderness, childish longing, dreams, love,
death, cruelty, crime, violence, cries of hatred, howls and tears’.
These few words encapsulate the nature of the experience awaiting
anyone prepared to travel to Venice to see this remarkable exhibition,
which has paid proper and timely homage to Balthus in the year of
his death as a defender of values increasingly endangered throughout
his long lifetime.
In the exhibition, you will see how he took into account that world
created by Lewis Carroll in Alice in Wonderland and how,
despite the fact that he did not live or work in Poland, there are
clear traces of the Polish creative spirit as expressed through
the genius of Bruno Schulz, or Tadeusz Kantor, for example. The
exhibition poster illustrates a masterpiece which Balthus had painted
in l933 and which he chose to entitle enigmatically ‘La Rue’.
Artaud mentioned it in his review of the Balthus exhibition of
the Galerie Pierre as ‘a street where dream automates pass
by’. According to S W Hayter, the iconography of this painting
was drawn from Lewis Carroll, where the young girl appears as a
key player, identifiable as Alice, suffering from the aggression
of Tweedle Dum. There are many and varied interpretations of this
painting. In a typical Parisian street, the painting reveals nine
characters in manner reminiscent of those which Tadeusz Kantor had
created in his famous Theatre Cricot.
It was somehow appropriate that Balthus – who lived the life
he was born to as a true Polish nineteenth-century aristocrat –
should have been appointed Director of the French Academy by André
Malraux. Balthus’ mission then was to undertake the restoration
of the villa, which housed the Academy, and to open it to researchers,
restorers and students. The Academy stands accordingly today as
a testimony to Balthus’ preparedness always to defend the inherent
orthodoxy which remains at the heart of a true European culture.
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