Balthus (Balthasar Klossowski de Rola) – French artist of Polish descent, whose works get mixed reactions from viewers, collectors and art experts ranging from admiration to revolt and rejection.

The Retrospective exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler (Riehen, Switzerland) combines 40 key works from all of his creative periods of the artist from 1920s to 1990s. Among these artworks there are portraits, interiors, landscapes and street scenes. Despite the variety of his works, often the creativity of the artist is associated with the topic of young girls’ wakening femininity.

At this exhibition there are several portraits of a girl named Therese Blanchard, the most famous of which “Therese Dreaming” was created by the artist in 1938. On this painting Therese is portrayed sitting on a chair with the bent knee, the lifted ends of her red skirt showing the viewer her underwear. Her hands are connected above her head, her eyes are closed. It seems that she has no idea that somebody is watching her at this moment, Therese keeps on dreaming in this dignified but relaxed pose.

Therese Dreaming, 1938

This particular painting attracted international attention and caused a public outcry in November 2017. Due to the prominent erotic connotation of this work, activists came out with the public petition to remove the painting from display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Even though the online-petition received wide publicity and gathered more than 10 thousand signatures, the museum kept the contradictory artwork. This was one of the first and the most notable example of the characteristic portraits of young girls by Balthus, that are on the edge of discovering their sexuality.

You can visit this exhibition starting from September 2, 2018 until January 1, 2019.
www.fondationbeyeler.ch