Art Museum - Research Paper Example

He is considered a modern artist, which means that he belongs to the era that roughly extended from the 1980’s to the 1970’s, and of a movement that is characterized by a tendency towards experimentation and abstraction (Cahoone). However, despite the undeniable fact that his work was fresh and thought provoking, he shied away from creating abstract artwork, and stuck to the classical technique of oil painting. His paintings were composed and crisp, marked with the influence of the realist painter Gustave Courbet.

With superficial examination one might declare that there is nothing modern about Balthus’ work. However, there is an indisputable air of strangeness to his work. This ‘strangeness’ that strikes many as almost disturbing is felt not through the style of painting but rather it was within his depictions and subjects that he displayed his modernism. Balthus’ art is marked with his fascination for the uninnocent sexuality of adolescent girls. Most of his work feature young women in an ordinary setting, but they are shown as naked, or are shown in contorted and suggestive positions.

While the artist himself insists that there is no element of sexual provocation in his work (Cahoone), it is difficult to deny the stimulating and sexual nature of most of his work. An example of this would be the oil painting ‘Guitar Lesson’ which was made in 1934. While the title brings to mind an almost domestic scene, the actual painting depicts a young woman half naked with her skirt pulled almost to her waist exposing her bare private parts while she lies across her music instructor’s lap in place of a guitar.

Her music instructor, who is a middle aged woman, holds her much as she would hold a guitar, with her right hand clutching the young woman’s hair and the left hand grasping her student’s inner thigh provocatively close to her