Cats In Balthus’ Paintings

Balthus(1908-2001),As an outstanding master of figurative painting in the 20th century.He was self-taught and became famous earlier.He has held solo exhibitions and retrospective exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York,the Venice Biennale,the Pompidou Center in Paris,and Palazzo Grassi in Venice.He is known as the "Last Master of the 20th Century".The painter is good at daily themes.Most of his works are based on the image of girls and cats.Among them,cats are repeatedly created and depicted in Balthus’ s works.Works on this theme also run through the artist’s entire artistic career.For the artist,Balthus chose cats as the representative of the visual image,which is subjective,specific,and emotional.This kind of artistic image is a symbolic language unique to Balthus.It comes from the artist’s self-identification of cats,and is also the result of the artist’s high degree of unity of subjective consciousness and objective existence.Thus,in a certain sense,cats,as the subject matter and symbolic choice of Balthus’ art works,have gradually become a bridge between the individual artist and the spiritual world,and also become the spiritual symbol in his works of art.This article is to study this aspect,walk into the world behind Balthus’ paintings,and explore the connection between his cats and works of art.In the second chapter,it first introduces the image of cats in western traditional art,tells the historical culture and artistic background of cats,and reveals its essential connotation and artistic value.In the third chapter,the cat in Balthus’ s works is analyzed,the basic overview and artistic characteristics are analyzed,the evolution process of the cats in Balthus’ s paintings in different periods,and the formal language analysis for the works of art are described.The recurring basic phenomenon of cats in Balthus’ paintings reveals the importance of cats to the artist.The fourth chapter focuses on the relationship between the cat and the artist,and the spiritual direction behind it is extraordinary.In fact,it serves as the representative of the artist’s spiritual symbol and the reason for interpreting the cat as the artist’s individual spiritual symbol.That is to say,the cat,as the artist’s individual spiritual symbol,is the result of personal emotional experience and symbolic choice.In the last chapter of the thesis,it is aimed at the diversified interpretation of Balthus’ spiritual symbols.From the perspective of self-identification and "existence",it analyzes the deep meaning behind the artist’s individual spiritual symbols.First,explain the relevance of self-identity and the artist’s spiritual symbols;secondly,analyze the problem of "I don’t exist",and finally explain what is meant by "presence" and the symbol of the artist’s "presence".That is,the cat,as the incarnation of the artist,becomes the eternal existence of spiritual symbols.