BECOMING BALTHUS

Valerie Lamontagne

March 14 - April 19, 2003

Becoming Balthus is a project that attempts to create a bridge between the fields of painting and performance. Conceived as both a performance and digital photo series Becoming Balthus is based on extensive research into the work of the painter Balthus (Count Balthus Klossowski de Rola) and the representation of women and adolescents in his paintings. Becoming Balthus aims at analyzing and synthesizing the artists’ work within a tradition of feminist performance art.

Balthus is an artist who has generated ample controversy as well as adoration. Born at the beginning of the century (1908) his work has been influenced and informed by the Realist, Surrealist, Modernist and Post-Modernist movements. Predominantly known for his nudes of young women, his paintings are highly composed and orchestrated mise-en-scenes where sexual/power dynamics are at play. Although Balthus is considered a “pornographer” by some, this project seeks to create links between Balthus’ staged paintings of adolescent women and its connection to sexualized feminist performance art. By usurping the imagery contained in his work, I intend to invest it with my particular vision of female sexuality. Precedents for this kind of highly sexually charged performance/photography work include those of:
Francesca Woodman, Yayoi Kusama, Hanna Wilke, Carolee Schneemann, Cindy Sherman as well as interpretations of the work of Lady Hawarden and Lewis Carroll. This project is influenced by Carol Mavor’s book, Becoming , wherein she traces links between the sensual photographs of Lady Hawarden – a 19th century photographer - and the contemporary and controversial photographs by Sally Mann, Francesca Woodman. In Becoming Balthus I embody, or become, both a character out of a Balthus painting(s) as well as an engaged feminist performer.

The series of digital colour photographs presented at Artspace borrow the compositions of Balthus paintings to create a backdrop to my own camera-centric performances. The departure point for the works in Becoming Balthus involve the dynamic compositional arrangements of Balthus’ paintings, particularly those involving women. Anchored within the 19th century practice of Tableau Vivants (wherein people would re-produce famous paintings by dressing up and performing the various “characters”) the photographs unveil the hidden (and at times not so hidden) sexual/political overtones of the Balthus oeuvre. The work combines photos of myself acting out the characters featured in Balthus’ paintings, digitally manipulated and “placed” into the original paintings. Acting as director and performer, the images are directed towards inserting myself into an imaginary space and expanding the interpretation given to Balthus’ work.

Becoming Balthus is grounded in an awareness of the problematic representation of the female body as exacerbated in Balthus’ work and beyond. It aims at making links between feminist approaches to the representation of the female body as well as feminist psychoanalytical theory, in particular the writing of Julia Kristeva , Hélène Cixous and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick . By re-enacting the erotic displays contained within Balthus’ work I hope to continue the discourse on the problematic of representing the female body in art in general.

Valerie Lamontagne
2003

For more information, please visit the artist's site: http://www.mobilegaze.com/valerie/