Description
Book SynopsisThis is the first full-scale biography of one of the most elusive and enigmatic painters of our time: the self-proclaimed Count Balthus Klossowski de Rola, whose brilliant, markedly sexualized portraits, especially of young girls, are among the most memorable images in contemporary art. Balthus’s complexities are clarified and his genius understood in this book that derives its immediacy from Nicholas Fox Weber’s long and intense conversations with Balthus himself–who never previously consented to discuss his life and work with a biographer–as well as Weber’s interviews with the artist’s closest associates. This biography was first published by Knopf in 1999 and is now available for the first time from Dalkey Archive Press.
Trade Review"A book that often reads like an update of one of those late novels of Henry James -- as adapted, say, by Vladimir Nabokov -- in which the narrator finds all appearances to be deceptive and every revelation is calculated to raise more questions than it answers." -- Hilton Kramer, Wall Street Journal "Weber explores Balthus's many influences, from the work of Piero della Francesca to psychoanalytic theory and his brother's fascination with the Marquis de Sade... a splendid account of a complex life and as fine an artist's biography as this season is likely to produce." -- Publishers Weekly "Probing the inner man and his work, the author partially explains the mystique that has surrounded this critically acclaimed and self-invented painter whose surreal, sexually charged images are both disturbing and haunting." -- Library Journal
