Balthus

The Fondation Beyeler presents a major retrospective dedicated to the late Balthasar Klossowski de Rola (1908–2001), known as Balthus. The starting point for the show is Balthusʼs monumental painting Passage du Commerce-Saint-André, from 1952–1954, which has been on permanent loan to the museum for some time; on top of that, some fifty important pictures from every phase of Balthus’s oeuvre are presented to investigate also what’s behind the staging of his often provocative images, and illuminate the elements of irony and mystery in his production.