Talk:Balthus

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[edit] Biographies

"Biographers rushed into print shortly after his death, and their work has since been severely and widely criticised as being unreasonable and confused."

This is a rather sweeping statement with no sources. Which biographies? and by whom? ----

The statements refers to Nicholas Weber's biography of the artist, i think. Anchorite 21:06, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

--Biographers means plural. Fox Weber is only one. Also there's no back up or reference for who did the "severe" and "wide" criticism. This statement surely should be removed.

--I've removed this line.

Too bad. If you ever followed overall criticism of the biographies that came out immediately after Balthus' death, you'd see they were indeed severely criticized, especially the one by Weber. Who did that? NY Times, for one, and many other leading publications. Should we dig out sources to defend the statement? - sure, why not. Is it really worth it? No. Anchorite 14:19, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Illustrations

Since the article discusses The Guitar Lesson should not the painting be part of the article? Haiduc 04:43, 23 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I think so, a picture is definitely worth a thousand circumlocutary words here in explaining the tension between eroticism, discomfort, and reference. However, adding it will certainly be controversial. Should we seek guidance first? Subsolar 08:15, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Ancestral Debates

The section quotes extensively from Weber's book, and basically repeats the authors assertions, which are not really relevant to the person of Balthus, but more so to the person of author, Nicholas Weber. When you read the book, you notice that the author has fallen out with Balthus on the personal level pretty much soon after gaining private access to the artist. The remainder of the book was written without consent, permission, or collaboration with the artist. Weber makes numerous mistakes about Eastern European geography, genealogy, and heraldry as it pertains to the ancestral debates. I'd be extremely cautious quoting ANYTHING that he ascribes to Balthus, as Balthus' real words. Anchorite 14:30, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Given this, I have removed the "French Jews" and "Polish Jews" categories. —Ashley Y 08:24, 21 January 2007 (UTC)