CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 10/26/2018

Languid grace at ill-defined borders in 'Balthus'

"It was always about approaching the mystery of childhood," Balthus once said, "its languid grace at ill-defined borders. I sought to paint the soul's secrets, the obscure and luminous tension of their partially blooming matrix. I might say it's about the crossing. The uncertain worrisome time when innocence is total and will soon give way to another age, more determinedly social." Thérèse (1938) is reproduced from Hatje Cantz's superb catalogue to the current Fondation Beyeler Balthus exhibition.