Vanished Splendors: A Memoir

by Balthus, Benjamin Ivry (Translator), Joyce Carol Oates (Introduction)

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."

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography Memoir

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Balthasar Kłossowski de Rola, known as Balthus, was an esteemed Polish/French modern artist.

Reviews

[Chuck LoPresti · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you are interested in reading the words of a man who lives his last moments defining his own legacy and using religion to excuse his perversions - check this out. I will admit to really enjoying the paintings of Balthus - but Balthus the man...much less interesting. When you paint tons of panty shots and pubescent girls and then try to pass yourself off as a modern day Piero della Francesco - it's a tough sell. This book is just a bunch of self-justification and it's only real value is the mocking laughter it will create for any non-cretin.

[Lee Bullitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I give it 4 starts mostly because of the descriptions of place and light. I love reading about artists in their own words, and I’m a sucker for any book that leaves me with a ton of art references to look into. Was it well written? Not particularly, but if you’re curious about his work based on all the rumors that swirl about him, this will give you something to compare public timelines to.

[Judy Vasseur · Rating 3 out of 5]

It doesn’t matter how many times you say how pure your intentions were Balthus...you should have put some clothes on those young girls.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

“As a young man in 1933, I made sixteen pen-and-ink illustrations of Emily Bronté's Wuthering Heights, which I admire greatly. I was inspired by the romantic passion that breathes through it, and its harsh characters. I'm not sure that I gave my features to the protagonist Heathcliff, but looking at the drawings today, I find traces of my former rebelliousness, now calmed, and the fierce violence that was inside me.” (p.93)

“In 1965, I sent a short telegram to the art critic John Russell, who requested some anecdotal details about my life to fill out his introductory text for my Tate Gallery retrospective exhibit: "Start this way: Balthus is a painter about whom nothing is known. Now we may look at his paintings.” (p.107)

“That is, to go to the root of things with a single line, with a free wrist motion that in its simplicity attains the Nameless, what Chinese painters also call the Universal.” (p.156)

“To paint is to emerge from yourself, forget yourself, and prefer anonymity, sometimes while contradicting your own time and those close to you. Trendiness must be rejected. Cling to what you believe is right for you at all costs, and even develop what I--like nineteenth-century dandies- always called the "aristocratic taste for displeasing." Knowing the subtle pleasure in being different destines you for incredible, amazing tasks.” (p.233)

[vasja · Rating 4 out of 5]

эстетизированный до предела текст художника-ценителя красоты. постоянная тяга к классике пуссена или итальянскому фресковому примитивизму (хотя какой там примитивизм.., плоскостность, может быть..), любовь к созерцательности и потребность в уединении красочно нарисовали в голове бальтюса в образе старого монаха-цистерианца. я бы не сказала, что книга рисует историю всего искусства xx века, чего собственно она делать не должна и не может, ведь это воспоминания конкретного творца о своих исканиях как человека и как мастера. тем не менее она может пролить свет на какие-то личностные качества некоторых представителей века, с которыми бальтюс был особенно близок: джакометти, пикассо, рильке..

много размышлений о технике, свете, композиции и смыслах или их отсутствии, отличная ретроспекция собственного творчества, того, как оно складывалось, и что (и кто, и как) на него влияло. после стольких слов об итальянских фресках меняется взгляд и отношение к плоскостности на полотнах самого бальтюса, к шершавой текстуре.

всё равно мне показалось, какими бы лиричными и искренними не были изложенные им мысли, что присутствует элемент лукавства или, может быть, невозможность/нежелание быть до конца узнанным или раскрытым.

[Javier Iglesias · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Nada de truco o de costumbre: manantial y nacimiento. Pintar es ir todos los días a la fuente para sacar agua. La luz".

[Montse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genial. Lo he leido como preparacion a la exposicion del Thyssen y me ha encantado.