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The Arts Intel Report

Setsuko: Into Nature

Setsuko, Le chat et l’oiseau, 2023.

July 1 – Sept 10, 2023
Promenade 79, 3780 Gstaad, Switzerland

Setsuko—born Setsuko Ideta—met the artist Balthus in 1962, when he was visiting Japan. Five years later she became his second wife. Balthus is better known than Setsuko, whose renderings of nature—in the mediums of bronze, ceramics and gouache—are charming and often sublime. “Nature doesn’t need us,” she says, “but we need nature.” This exhibition presents Setsuko’s latest ceramic sculptures, which take acorns, blooms, fruit, and foliage as their subject. They nod to the age of Jōmon earthenware, which dates back to around 11,000 B.C. —Elena Clavarino

Photo: Thomas Lannes/© Setsuko/courtesy of Gagosian