Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

  • AMMpro
  • AMM Fantasy Collecting Game
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

Forbidden Balthus

September 23, 2013 by Marion Maneker

Balthus, The Guitar Lesson

Jerry Saltz wants to talk about the troubling Balthus work that appeared at Pierre Matisse’s gallery in a 1977 show but has never been shown in public since. Saltz describes the work’s position in the Balthus canon: “in this one work, Balthus broke through his overweening coyness, predictability, and button-pushing theatricality, depicting a truly mysterious, open-ended picture of our strange, strange loves.”

Right after the 1977 exhibition, Pierre Matisse offered to donate this work to the Museum of Modern Art, and it was even delivered to MoMA. There it sat, stored, until 1982, when Blanchette Rockefeller, the museum’s president and a huge donor and fund-raiser, saw it and demanded that MoMA refuse the gift. It went back to Matisse’s gallery, where it was sold (to Mike Nichols), then resold again and again, ending up with the Greek shipping tycoon Stavros Niarchos. He, according to Balthus’s biographer, kept it in “an elaborately paneled bedroom, furnished like rooms at Versailles … [next to] a king-size container of Preparation H.” He died in 1996, and the painting remains with his heirs.

Saltz on the Painting the Metropolitan Museum of Art Won’t Show You (New York Magazine)

More from Art Market Monitor

  • Minor RedemptionMinor Redemption
  • Osian's Wants It's ArtOsian's Wants It's Art
  • Pinault Gets Good Value from Zodiac GiftPinault Gets Good Value from Zodiac Gift
  • Art Benefits Leo’s Charity But Is Leo Good for Art?Art Benefits Leo’s Charity But Is Leo Good for Art?
  • Does Art Go Well with Apps?Does Art Go Well with Apps?
  • India's Own Roadblocks to Retrieving Its PatrimonyIndia's Own Roadblocks to Retrieving Its Patrimony

Filed Under: Artists

About Marion Maneker

Want to get Art Market Monitor‘s posts sent to you in our email? Sign up below by clicking on the Subscribe button.

Top Posts

  • Keith Haring’s 1989 Retrospect Comes to Sotheby’s London Prints Sale
  • Portraits of King Charles I's Children Lead Sotheby's December Old Master Sale
  • Asian Art Market Continues Rapid Ascent at Sotheby’s $270 M. Hong Kong Sales
  • How to Chant Like an Auctioneer
  • Roy Lichtenstein’s Top Ten Auction Prices
  • Four of Picasso's Women Valued at $28m Come to Christie's from Rose-Walters Collection
  • Phillips to Showcase Helen Frankenthaler at Southampton Outpost
  • Tony Podesta's Secret Art Buying
  • David Hockney's $20m Pacific Coast Highway & Santa Monica
  • Norman Rockwell's Not Gay. But Is He a Great Artist?
  • About Us/ Contact
  • Podcast
  • AMMpro
  • Newsletter
  • FAQ

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
California Privacy Rights
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Advertise on Art Market Monitor