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Balthus

Balthus, Odalisque allongée, 1998–99 Oil on canvas, 88 ½ × 90 ½ inches (224.8 × 229.9 cm)

Balthus, Odalisque allongée, 1998–99

Oil on canvas, 88 ½ × 90 ½ inches (224.8 × 229.9 cm)

About

Balthus was a reclusive painter of charged and disquieting narrative scenes. Skirting avant-garde movements such as Surrealism, he appropriated the techniques of such antecedents as Piero della Francesca and Gustave Courbet to depict the physical and psychic struggles of adolescence. Casting viewers as voyeurs of brooding pubescent female subjects, he scandalized audiences with his first gallery exhibition, at Galerie Pierre, Paris, in 1934. In the sixty years that followed, Balthus cultivated a self-taught classicism—evident in the subject matter and technique of his interior portraits, street scenes, and landscapes—that ultimately served as a framework for more enigmatic and subversive artistic investigations.

Balthus (Balthasar Klossowski de Rola) was born in 1908 in Paris, and died in 2001 in Rossinière, Switzerland. His first major museum exhibition was at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1956. Other important exhibitions include Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris (1966); A Retrospective Exhibition, Tate, London (1968); 39th Biennale di Venezia, Venice (1980); Balthus in Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1980); Centre Pompidou, Paris (1983–84, traveled to Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York); Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art (1984); Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland (1993); Hong Kong Museum of Art (1995); Palazzo Grassi, Venice (2001); Time Suspended: Paintings and Drawings 1932–1960, Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2007); 100th Anniversary, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny, Switzerland (2008); Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum (2014, traveled to Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art); Balthus: Cats and Girls—Paintings and Provocations, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2013–14); and Scuderie del Quirinale and Villa Medici, Rome (2015).

Fairs, Events & Announcements

Tetsuya Ishida, Untitled (Planting Trees), 2000 © Estate of Tetsuya Ishida

Art Fair

West Bund Art & Design 2021

November 12–14, 2021, booth A102
West Bund Art Center, Shanghai
westbundshanghai.com

Gagosian is pleased to participate in the eighth edition of West Bund Art & Design. The gallery will present works by Balthus, Georg Baselitz, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Glenn Brown, Helen Frankenthaler, Katharina Grosse, Mark Grotjahn, Damien Hirst, Thomas Houseago, Tetsuya Ishida, Alex Israel, Takashi Murakami, Albert Oehlen, Nam June Paik, Sterling Ruby, Ed Ruscha, Rudolf Stingel, Spencer Sweeney, Zao Wou-Ki, and Zeng Fanzhi, among others.

To receive a pdf with detailed information on the works, please contact the gallery at inquire@gagosian.com.

Tetsuya Ishida, Untitled (Planting Trees), 2000 © Estate of Tetsuya Ishida

Balthus, Passage du Commerce-Saint-André, 1952–54 © Balthus, 2021

Upcoming Publication

Balthus
Catalogue Raisonné

L’Atelier de Balthus, in partnership with Gagosian, announces the preparation of a two-volume catalogue raisonné of Balthus’s work to be published in 2023. Edited under the direction of Yves Guignard, this updated edition of the inaugural catalogue raisonné first issued in 1999 by Jean Clair and Virginie Monnier will incorporate in-depth archival research about Balthus’s artistic legacy. The newly designed publication will unveil recently discovered artworks as well as include comprehensive provenance and exhibition histories accompanied by full-color reproductions of Balthus’s painting oeuvre, related drawings, and studies.

Collectors with a previously unauthenticated or unknown work by Balthus in their possession are invited to contact the editorial team at contact@fonds-balthus.com to submit the work for potential inclusion in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné.

Those whose works were featured in the 1999 catalogue raisonné are requested to submit updated provenance and exhibition history details as well as high-resolution digital images for inclusion in the new publication before December 1, 2021.

Balthus, Passage du Commerce-Saint-André, 1952–54 © Balthus, 2021

Georg Baselitz, Noch ein Orangenesser, 2020 © Georg Baselitz

Art Fair

Art Basel Hong Kong 2021

May 21–23, 2021, booth 1d30
Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
www.artbasel.com

Gagosian is pleased to participate in Art Basel Hong Kong with a presentation of modern and contemporary painting and sculpture by gallery artists. New paintings by Georg BaselitzAlex IsraelEd Ruscha, and Sarah Sze are featured alongside exceptional works in a range of mediums by Louise BonnetTheaster GatesHenry MooreNam June Paik, and others, uncovering formal and conceptual innovations and associations that span genres and aesthetic approaches.

Georg Baselitz, Noch ein Orangenesser, 2020 © Georg Baselitz

See all News for Balthus

Museum Exhibitions

Installation view, Balthus dessinateur, Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland, February 3–April 23, 2023. Artwork © Balthus

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Balthus dessinateur

February 3–April 23, 2023
Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland
www.mcba.ch

This exhibition, whose title translates to Balthus the Draftsman, features a selection of drawings by Balthus, placed by the artist’s family on long-term loan with the museum. Drawing lay at the heart of the artist’s practice as both a system for understanding and analyzing the world around him and a crucial step in making his paintings. The works are simple, fragmentary, private studies that help reveal his creative process.

Installation view, Balthus dessinateur, Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland, February 3–April 23, 2023. Artwork © Balthus

Balthus, Paysage de Monte Calvello, 1978 © Balthus

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Découpage
A Labour of Love

July 1–October 17, 2021
Tarmak22, Gstaad Saanen Airport, Switzerland
www.tarmak22.com

Découpage presents more than 150 cut-paper works made in the nineteenth and twentieth century by Swiss masters. Tracing the origins and development of the paper cutout, the exhibition honors the craft’s history and its Swiss heritage while creating a dialogue with a selection of contemporary artworks brought to Gstaad by collaborators including Gagosian. Work by Balthus, Richard Prince, and Setsuko is included.

Balthus, Paysage de Monte Calvello, 1978 © Balthus

Balthus, Thérèse, 1938 © 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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Balthus

February 19–May 26, 2019
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
www.museothyssen.org

This exhibition brings together more than fifty important paintings by Balthus from every phase of his oeuvre. The starting point of the show is his monumental painting Passage du Commerce-Saint-André (1952–54), which epitomizes the artist’s intensive engagement with the dimensions of space and time in the image, and with their relationship to figure and object. This exhibition has traveled from the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen/Basel.

Balthus, Thérèse, 1938 © 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Balthus, The Card Game, 1948–50, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid © Balthus

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Balthus

September 2, 2018–January 1, 2019
Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel
www.fondationbeyeler.ch

The Fondation Beyeler brings together more than fifty important paintings by Balthus from every phase of his oeuvre. The starting point of the show is his monumental painting Passage du Commerce-Saint-André (1952–54), which epitomizes the artist’s intensive engagement with the dimensions of space and time in the image, and with their relationship to figure and object.

Balthus, The Card Game, 1948–50, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid © Balthus

See all Museum Exhibitions for Balthus