20 September - 23 November 2006

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Artist, philosopher, novelist and translator, Pierre Klossowski created an intense world of violence, passion, moral turbulence and theological inquest.

Born in Paris in 1905. Klossowski embarked on a writing career through close relationships with Rainer Maria Rilke, André Gide and Georges Bataille. Following the encouragement of André Masson, Alberto Giacometti and his younger brother the painter Balthus, Klossowski produced a number of drawings to illustrate his first novel, Roberte ce soir, in 1953. A two-year eruption of drawing followed when Klossowski produced numerous life-size portraits in lead pencil, attempting to capture ‘the silvery, shimmering effect of the silent screen…’

His first public exhibition was held in Paris in 1967, a few years before he applied colour in his drawings, to rediscover the ambience of old theatre posters and trompe-l’oeil painting. Made with scholarly application and minute, feathery strokes, recalling the self-imposed discipline of a monastic miniaturist, Klossowski rejuvenated the ancient subject of the nude. He rehearsed well-worn themes, obsessively repeating sado-erotic scenes referring to a roll call of ‘spirits’ from throughout the ages, whether mythological, historical, fictional, mystical, folkloric or art historical. Among them Diana and Actaeon, Tarquin and Lucretia, Ganymede and Klossowski’s own invention, Roberte, centred around his wife and muse. They are supported by a large cast ranging from Alexandre Dumas’ femme fatale Milady, the 15th century serial killer Gilles de Rais and Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver.

Klossowski’s delicate balancing act between submission and resistance weaves complex threads of theology, philosophy, pornography and mythology. These themes echo through his drawings and written texts and attracted the admiration of intellectuals including Gilles Deleuze and Michel Foucault. Klossowski also worked with a number of filmmakers from the 1970s onwards and produced three sculptures in the 1990s. From his apartment in Paris, where he lived with his wife Denise, he continued to inspire generation after generation until his death in 2001.

Curated by Sarah Wilson.

Admission free.