The Folkwang Museum in Essen, Germany, recently canceled an exhibition of Polaroids by Balthus planned for April, according to The Art Newspaper. The image were harshly criticized by Die Zeit, calling them, “documents of pedophile greed.” A similar and widely praised exhibition was held at the Gagosian Gallery in New York, and the Galerie Danziger is now presenting a short series by the Japanese photographer Hisaji Hara with the unambiguous title After Balthus.
His staged photographs of models bundled up in their schoolgirl uniforms are delicate studies of eroticism, odes to the body and budding desire, as in the compositions of Balthus. We see the same, “pensive adolescents who dream or read in rooms that are closed to the outside world,” as the Metropolitan Museum described the painter’s world for their recent exhibition of his work. But Hara’s photographs play out in settings that are distinctly Japanese.
With a medium format camera and a meticulous development process, Hara achieves a warm texture reminiscent of the paintings which inspired them, giving the photographs a timeless, cinematic quality. “For every painting with a model, I organize a photo session,” said Balthus in the introduction to a recent monograph published by Steidl. “Since I can no longer see well enough to draw, I rely on these Polaroid ‘sketches.’” The time when painters reproduced photographs is through. Now painters are modeling their work on photographs. Indeed, the series by Hisaji Hara is called A Photographic Portrayal of the Paintings of Balthus.
EXHIBITION
Hisaji Hara, After Balthus
Until March 22, 2014
Danziger Gallery
527 West 23rd Street
New York, NY 10011
USA
http://www.danzigergallery.com
http://hisajihara.com
http://www.steidl.de/flycms/en/Balthus/2732375056.html
