Scan barcode
yuefei's review
Trying to make my way through the books I've accumulated throughout the years, which I couldn't/didn't take with me and have left behind here in NZ. This one was brief and charming, a few glimpses into Rilke's private life via his correspondences with Balthus. I remember seeing this book at Unity (J. pointed it out to me) and finding the title appealing; a chance encounter, almost like fate, that would give me the guidance I needed to develop as an artist. It's difficult not to romanticise early 20th century artistic life—there is a kind of comforting and necessary escapism in its mythologies (it makes a lot of sense that this was published by David Zwirner); this book feels a little bit like a reflection of what I was like in high school; desperately searching for some guidance and finding a large reserve of energy in these Romantic myths about the figure of the artist.
sinogaze's review
4.0
epic companion piece to Letters to a Young Poet, but I feel like it doesn’t stand alone as an individual work
marathonreader's review
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
4.5
Rilke is a gift to humanity. But before you read Letterss to a Young Painter, be forewarned that these correspondences are even briefer than Poet. The last few sections include a foreword Mitsou: Forty Images by Baltusz by Rilke, and then an essay about Rilke.
Here, Rene Maria Rilke writes around the hight of his acclaim to Balthus on their friendship, on occasions of Balthus's birthday, on artwork, on post-WWI attitudes, just to name a few. I am always moved by the compassion and empathy and love that Rilke communicates, as he inspires Balthus to appreciate his own work and move forward.
"I can imagine only too well the enormous difference between the intense and joyful attention tyou pay to these works of yours and the other, compulsory, dry, required attention they try to inculcate in you once you've set foot int eh classroom. But my dear Balthus, at the moment how can I do anything but very unwillingly encourage the latter? This must be your exam period...To do this for a little while would not change how school seems to you, but with the superiority resulting from this effort you would be able to take from school everything that might serve your own ideas and individual interests. It's not as if school doesn't contain all sorts of things you'd enjoy; it's just that it doesn't manage, or manages only badly, to make contact and offer those things to you... Try, make an effrort, there is nothing in life that doesn't produce a very valuable and ultimately individual pleasure if only we are a little persistent" (20-21) dec. 31, 1920
"Let this year of your life bout to commence be a happy and psoperous one - despite everything, I have to add, since it seems weave fallen back into the worst of the political turmoil that has already ruined so many years and that little by little deprives those of my generation aof any reputable future. It's different for you, you will see the dawn to come after this night engulfing our world; you need to see it and call it and prepare for it with all your strength" (26) feb 23, 1923
"I have not forgotten, my good Balthus, the magnificent gift you made and gave me.... But please I beg you, don't think of sending it to me at the moment. For I'm not planning to go back to Muzot right away, and if one day they find me done for here, your painting would be all alone there... It has to satay with you for the time being, so that you can show it to your friends and your friends' friends, and also so that you can look at it more and be moved to make other beautiful things, either after the old masters or after the harmony being created between your imagination and aeverything that happens to you" (30) feb 24, 1926
Here, Rene Maria Rilke writes around the hight of his acclaim to Balthus on their friendship, on occasions of Balthus's birthday, on artwork, on post-WWI attitudes, just to name a few. I am always moved by the compassion and empathy and love that Rilke communicates, as he inspires Balthus to appreciate his own work and move forward.
"I can imagine only too well the enormous difference between the intense and joyful attention tyou pay to these works of yours and the other, compulsory, dry, required attention they try to inculcate in you once you've set foot int eh classroom. But my dear Balthus, at the moment how can I do anything but very unwillingly encourage the latter? This must be your exam period...To do this for a little while would not change how school seems to you, but with the superiority resulting from this effort you would be able to take from school everything that might serve your own ideas and individual interests. It's not as if school doesn't contain all sorts of things you'd enjoy; it's just that it doesn't manage, or manages only badly, to make contact and offer those things to you... Try, make an effrort, there is nothing in life that doesn't produce a very valuable and ultimately individual pleasure if only we are a little persistent" (20-21) dec. 31, 1920
"Let this year of your life bout to commence be a happy and psoperous one - despite everything, I have to add, since it seems weave fallen back into the worst of the political turmoil that has already ruined so many years and that little by little deprives those of my generation aof any reputable future. It's different for you, you will see the dawn to come after this night engulfing our world; you need to see it and call it and prepare for it with all your strength" (26) feb 23, 1923
"I have not forgotten, my good Balthus, the magnificent gift you made and gave me.... But please I beg you, don't think of sending it to me at the moment. For I'm not planning to go back to Muzot right away, and if one day they find me done for here, your painting would be all alone there... It has to satay with you for the time being, so that you can show it to your friends and your friends' friends, and also so that you can look at it more and be moved to make other beautiful things, either after the old masters or after the harmony being created between your imagination and aeverything that happens to you" (30) feb 24, 1926
mugren's review
2.0
Letters to a Young Poet was an inspiring book. This is nothing more than a handful of letters written to a kid about how good Rilke thinks his paintings are.
More...