Film Review ‘Paranormal Activity The Ghost Dimension’ SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2015 38 Ining Dalmacio coaxes “Klondike,” a Pomeranian and inspired by the movie “Zorro,” during the annual dogs and cats pre-Halloween fashion show yesterday by Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) at suburban Quezon city, northeast of Manila, Philippines. The annual event is to raise awareness for the need to adopt or foster stray animals rescued by PAWS from the streets which now runs to hundreds. — AP (See more on Page 38) Major retrospective brings Balthus back to Rome althus is the subject of a major retrospective 77 and was largely responsible for the restoration Question of pedophilia opening this weekend in Rome, two years and reorganization of its home, the Villa Medici. Still This collection is lighter on the kind of images of Bafter a similar exhibition in New York sparked one of the city’s landmark buildings, the Villa is play- girls on the cusp of womanhood that led one critic controversy over the French painter’s erotically- ing host to a parallel exhibition which showcases to brand Balthus “one of the creepiest figures in charged depictions of barely pubescent girls. Nearly some of the artists’ major works completed during modern art” after the New York exhibition. Debray his time in Rome, his impact on the building and its acknowledges that painting “very young girls with a gardens and his working environment. very strong erotic suggestion” was a defining theme The main collection is being shown at the of Balthus’s work, but robustly dismisses any sug- Scuderie del Quirinale, the former stables of the gestion the work could be regarded as indicative a papal palace that is now the official residence of predatory sexual interest in minors. Italy’s president. It features examples of work from “Until now they never caused any debate but it every stage of Balthus’s career, including land- is true that very recently we have seen some rather scapes, still lifes and portraits as well as some of the prudish reactions to his painting as there has been controversial erotic pieces and numerous works fea- much debate around the subject of pedophilia,” she turing cats, another of the artist’s fixations. said. “I think it is very important to recall that these Cecile Debray, the curator of the exhibition, said are paintings, ie representations, and that Balthus Balthus could virtually be considered a Roman giv- was absolutely not a pedophile. en the importance of the time he spent here and “It (what he is doing) is much more a reflection the impact earlier trips to Italy had on him. “He was on the nature of eroticism, the nature of beauty and always fascinated both by the primitives of the a sort of desire to engage the public on the essen- Renaissance and by a certain form of classicism that tial subjects of eroticism and sexuality. “He wanted was incarnated by Rome,” Debray told AFPTV, to shake up the art world through a very intelligent describing the artist as a one-off. “He didn’t belong use of a realism that suggests erotic or grotesque to any movement. He was part of the generation of atmospheres. It is this very individual painting that 15 years after his death, the collection of some 150 surrealists but never a surrealist himself and he was still engages the public today and can also still dis- of his works represents a return to a city where without doubt the greatest figurative painter of the turb.” The exhibitions are on until the end of January Balthus spent a considerable chunk of his career, 20th Century. “He was born in 1908, died in 2001. after which the collection at the Scuderie will move and to a country that inspired a passion for figura- He lived through the entire 20th century and to the Kunstforum in Vienna. — AFP tive painting that placed him outside the major remained extremely faithful to an extremely realist modernist art movements of the 20th Century form of painting, albeit a realism that absorbed a Balthus, born Balthazar Klossowski de Rola to a subtle and light form of fantasy. And I’d say it is that France-based Polish father and Russian mother, was which makes the poetry and uniqueness of director of the French Academy in Rome from 1961- Balthus.” Attendees look at paintings by late French artist Balthus (1908-2001) during the exhibition dedicated to his work at the Villa Medici in Rome. — AFP photos.