Discussion On Abstract Elements In Balthus’s Concrete Painting

Balthus is praised as “the greatest painter in the20th century” by Picasso. In the20th century, when the abstract painting was not the mere imitation of naturaltraditional painting, the abstractionism dominated the painting circle; however,Balthus insisted on concrete painting and became a responder and watchman ofconcrete painting. His works have an outstanding feature, that is, the concrete imagesand abstract elements are used to express instantly concretionary space. In this way,the abstract spirit behind concrete matters is perfectly expressed and the concretepainting is developed to a higher level.The abstract elements have various patterns of manifestation. This paper mainlystarts from abstract elements in his words and then gives key research on Balthus’sartistic features and explores the abstract spirit embodied in Balthus’s art. AlthoughBalthus inherits something from traditional painting, his works are different fromtraditional painting; the concrete images in his works are just the external expressionof abstract spirit. This paper makes a discussion from line, shape, color, shadow,stroke, texture and other aspects and also analyzes the important function of eachabstract element in improving sense of form of picture.Balthus’s works contain abstract consciousness; he makes use of abstractelements to express concrete painting and his works show strong abstract style,which form his own painting language. The concretization and abstraction hedelivers can’t be separated and have important significance for current diversifiedartistic pattern.