An Analysis Of The Metaphors And Symbols In Balthus' Paintings

Balthus(1908-2001),is a great artist of Figurative painting in 20th Century.He learned by himself and got famous at a young age.His solo exhibitions and retrospectives were held in Museum of Modem Art(MoMA),La Biennale di Venezia,Centre National d'art et de Culture Georges Pompidou and Palazzo Grassi.He is called as "the last master of the 20th Century".He was born in 1908,only 2 years ago passed away Paul Cezanne,and modernism continued to flourish in Paris.The brutalism of Matisse and cubism of Picasso had been created.Although Blathus grew up in the modernism trend,he always kept out from it.When Abstract expressionism was dominating the western art,Balthus still stuck to Figurative painting,advocated restoring the classical style.He regarded ancient art as a model,to do art based on his sentiment of life.His paintings are between representational and abstract,ancient and modern,mystery and reality,and full of netaphors and symbols.The utilization of metaphors and symbols made his works full of mystery.He utilized them to express his emotion and inner feeling instead of representing the reality simply."Adolescent girls" and "cats" were two most important motifs which he used most frequently.This article uses "girls and cats" which fascinated him in a lifetime as an example,in a way of image analysis and theory carding,to explore The formation process and presentation of his metaphors and symbols.The resulting will show us new inspirations of Contemporary Figurative painting.