Balthus
I Les peintures de Balthus
In the paintings of Balthus
it is difficult to know
if the girls are asleep
or aroused
or dead
in the paintings of Balthus
the girls stare at mirrors
have cats
and seem unsure if they should be
ashamed
for letting someone look under
their skirts
in the paintings of Balthus
young girls read books
and play solitaire in sexual
positions
they seem unconscious of this
they seem lonely and bored
II La peintre
Painting does not mean
you understand what you see
the more you look at an object the
more
unfamiliar it becomes
declaring nothing
isolating what is most significant
a form of prayer
III La chambre
A girl naked on a couch
hair loose on her shoulders
arms and legs open in the window
sunlight
the curtain just opened by a
younger girl
who has none of her sister’s
curves
her face ugly and mannish
the face of the painter actually
and this is art isn’t it or isn’t
it
the part of us we put in
ugly though maybe interesting
yet there to reveal
though the motivation to do so
unreadable open to interpretation
jealousy hate desire
IV La leçon de guitare
Was the girl bad stubborn
did she not practice her scales
did she say who cares about guitar
anyway
and is the woman teacher angry
annoyed
this spoiled girl whose rich parents
pay for the lessons
while she earns extra money
teaching brats
taking the girl on her lap and
grabbing her hair
pushing the skirt up past her
navel
all smooth down to white knee
socks
the girl not seeming to struggle
except one hand pulling the
teacher’s dress open
she looks away refusing to
acknowledge anything
not even the hand gripping her
thigh
the guitar forgotten on the floor
V Nu au repos
The girl is wearing nothing but a
shirt
unbottoned opened lounging in a
chair
the shirt a man’s her skin grey
almost burnt
a foot crossed underneath the
other bare
leg and her body leaning to the
right
the room feels almost empty in the
light
that filters through the small
dirty window
her long dark hair still tucked
beneath the soft
white glowing shirt that she has
just put on
to keep her warm to rest nude girl
at rest
VI L’enfance
If we see sexuality in this
rendition of a pensive child, it is our problem. Of the way that the child
flashes her bare thighs at an alluring angle and flaunts her underwear-covered
labia, that’s how little girls sit. Where obscurity remains, it is the sort
that requires submission, not clarification. Little girls are familiar, a
universal theme. Additionally, they often dress in interesting ways. His
attraction to little girls was no deeper than that. If their knickers show, it
is because little girls often sit in a position in which their knickers show,
not because he was lusting for them or wanted his viewers to. This error should
not be seen as an innocent mistake. It was inspired by the human craving for
gossip, the same attractive motive that makes people act as if he has a thing
for little girls. There is after all, in the subject matter something that goes
beyond mere communication. The subject matter in emotional terms is manifestly
a matter of life and death to him. Reality, exactly. My childhood was
wonderful. I had a wonderful childhood.
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