Balthus

"From time to time, amidst all the trials and errors, it happens: I recognize what I was looking for. All of a sudden the vision that preexisted incarnates itself, more or less intuitively and more or less precisely. The dream and the reality are superimposed and made one." —Balthus

Published to document Gagosian Gallery’s 2015 Balthus exhibition in Paris, this striking new book depicts the beautiful paintings, drawings, and photographs that were part of that career-spanning exhibition, the first of Balthus’s work in Paris since the 1983–84 retrospective at the Centre Georges Pompidou. Vibrant color reproductions of the artist’s interior portraits, street scenes, and landscapes, along with striking installation shots, present the self-taught classicism that Balthus cultivated as a framework for his more enigmatic artistic investigations. A conversation between Olivier Zahm and Setsuko Klossowska de Rola completes the catalogue, providing an insightful look into the world of this reclusive painter of charged and disquieting narrative scenes.

Olivier Zahm is the cofounder and editor in chief of Purple Fashion. He is an accomplished photographer and has curated exhibitions at art institutions worldwide.

Internationally exhibited Japanese painter Setsuko Klossowska de Rola is the widow of Balthus and the honorary president of the Balthus Foundation.