He may have been born at the dawn of the last century, but Balthasar Klossowski knew a secret of our time: put a cat in everything. On display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through January 12, 2014, Balthus: Cats and Girls -- Paintings and Provocations, highlights the two most prominent themes in the French Artist's work. Born in Paris in 1908 Klossowski -- recognized today by his nickname Balthus -- began sketching cats when he was just 11 years old, drawing a series of images of a stray cat he named Mitsou that was later turned into a book. Continuing his fascination with cats, Balthus continued to utilize the animal as a prominent theme within his work. Shown typically amongst humans -- young girls in particular -- the felines have been considered "possible stand-ins for the artist himself." In his drawings and paintings, according to the museum, "Balthus mingles intuition into his young sitters’ psyches with an erotic undercurrent and forbidding austerity, making them some of the most powerful depictions of childhood and adolescence committed to canvas." The exhibit features some of Balthus's more recognized work, including the artist's self-portrait entitled The King of Cats, and a series of paintings featuring Thérèse Blanchard, a young neighbor of his in Paris, all done in the same warm color palette of browns, reds, and grays. Touching on the ideas of daydreaming and escapism, the exhibit encompasses the progression of Balthus's work until his death in 2001. Call him the proto-Buzzfeed.
Balthus
