Balthus

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Vanished Splendors: A Memoir

Balthus; Alain Vircondelet

The painter Balthus, whose tenacity and cultivated taste for secrecy have enveloped him in an aura of forbidding mystery, wrote this memoir at the end of his long life.A man who for decades opted to "give expression to the world" rather than to "express" himself speaks for the first and only time about his life, family, work, his theory of art and how it intersects with history, literature, and spirituality.

Balthus was born Balthasar Klossowski in 1908 to Polish art historian Erich Klossowski and his wife, the painter Elisabeth Dorothea Spiro. The family lived in Germany, France, and Switzerland. In this memoir Balthus describes his childhood with his mother and her lover -- the poet Rainer Maria Rilke -- who became Balthus's own spiritual mentor. He evokes la vie de boheme in Paris during the 1920s, his friendships with Picasso, Derain, Artaud, Giacometti, Saint-Exupéry, René Char, Pierre Jean Jouve, and Albert Camus.He discusses his paintings, offers glimpses into his marriage, and expresses his passion for Chinese art and the Swiss chalets and Italian villas that he helped to restore.He recalls touching moments with his beloved daughter Harumi and the inspiration he drew from his cats.Also, in a kind of final lesson, Balthus shares his thoughts about painting and creation, denounces contemporary art as being illusory and deceitful, and talks candidly about his Catholic faith and how it inspired his work.

"We are most charmed by the memoir's ease of expression, as if Balthus were confiding in us, as individuals," writes Joyce Carol Oates in her introduction to Vanished Splendors. "We are brought into a startling intimacy with genius."

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Other editions: Softcover - 2004

Entretiens, Sadruddin Aga Khan, Yehudi Menuhin, Theodore Monod

Balthus; Yehudi Menuhin; Theodore Monod; Sadruddin Aga Khan

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Balthus

Balthus; Stanislas Klossowski De Rola

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Balthus: 1908-2001

Balthus; Christian Delacampagne

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Balthus, Ou, Son Ombre

Balthus; Francois Rouan

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Correspondance Amoureuse Avec Antoinette De Watteville, 1928-1937

Balthus; Stanislas Klossowski De Rola; Thadee Klossowski; Antoinette de Watteville

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Memoires De Balthus

Balthus; Alain Vircondelet

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Balthus, Ou, L'enfant Au Miroir

Balthus; Claude Miniere

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Les Chats De Balthus

Balthus; Alain Vircondelet

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Balthus: Un Atelier Dans Le Morvan, 1953-1961 Dijon, Musee Des Beaux-Arts, 12 Juin-27 Septembre 1999

Balthus; Sophie Levy; Musee des beaux-arts de Dijon

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Other editions: 1999, 1999

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Balthus: The Drawings

Balthus

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Rilke-Balthus: Lettres a Un Jeune Peintre Suivi De Mitsou, Quarante Images Par Balthus

Balthus; Rainer Maria Rilke; Marc B. De Launay

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Enquete Autour D'un Portrait: (Sur Balthus)

Balthus; Herve Guibert

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Balthus

Balthus; Stanislas Klossowski De Rola; Stanislas Klossowski De Rola

This book is a thorough overview of the work of Balthus, the elusive painter whose fascinating images of young women were greatly admired by the Surrealists. Lush reproductions present the widest selections of Balthus' work ever published including all of his most important paintings and his entire output over the last ten years, and a unique photographic section shows Balthus as a young artist in his studio, and in recent images taken by his friend Cartier-Bresson and others. Balthus has always been convinced that his pictures should be seen, not read about or read into, but bowing to the demands of a career that has encompassed major retrospective exhibitions at the Tate Gallery, London, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and elsewhere, he has permitted his son to create this book.

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Other editions: 1983

Omaggio a Balthus

Balthus; Accademia Valentino (Rome, Italy)

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Balthus, Ou, La Quete De L'essentiel

Balthus; Semir Zeki

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Balthus: Zeichnungen

Balthus; Kunstmuseum Bern; Henriette Mentha; Marie-Francoise Robert

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Mitsou: Forty Images

Balthus

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Other editions: 1984

Balthus: Drawings and Watercolours

Balthus; Giovanni Carandente

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Balthus: Centre Georges Pompidou, Musee National D'art Moderne, Paris, 5 Novembre 1983-23 Janvier 1984 the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 21 Fevrier-13 Mai 1984

Balthus; Gerard Regnier; Musee National D'Art Moderne (France); Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)

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Balthus: Dessins Et Aquarelles Galerie Claude Bernard, Paris

Balthus; Galerie Claude Bernard

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