Setsuko
Figuier III, 2022
Enameled terra-cotta, 27 ⅜ × 19 ⅛ × 13 ¾ inches (69.5 × 48.5 × 35 cm)
© Setsuko. Photo: Thomas Lannes
Setsuko
Chêne I, 2022
Enameled terra-cotta, 27 ⅝ × 16 ⅝ × 14 ¼ inches (70 × 42 × 36 cm)
© Setsuko. Photo: Thomas Lannes
Setsuko
Chandelier (La vigne), 2021
Hand painted bronze, 21 ⅝ × 16 ⅛ × 6 ¾ inches (55 × 41 × 17 cm), edition of 8 + 4 AP
© Setsuko. Photo: Matteo D'Eletto, M3 Studio
Setsuko
Nature morte avec oiseau 1, 2020
Gouache on paper, 31 ½ × 26 ¼ inches (80 × 66.5 cm)
© Setsuko. Photo: Leonardo Cestari
Setsuko
Renaissance de l'Olivier, 2019
Painted oak, 23 ⅝ × 14 ¼ × 12 ¼ inches (60 × 36 × 31 cm)
© Setsuko. Photo: Thomas Lannes
Setsuko
Chandelier (grenadier), 2019
Hand painted bronze, 20 ¼ × 17 × 4 ⅜ inches (51.4 × 43 × 11 cm), edition of 8 + 4 AP
© Setsuko. Photo: Thomas Lannes
Setsuko
Sentier de lierre, 2017–18
Enameled terra-cotta, 15 × 5 ⅛ × 4 ⅜ inches (38 × 13 × 11 cm)
© Setsuko
Setsuko
Chat assis sur fauteuil en osier vert, 1996–97
Gouache on canvas, 45 ½ × 31 ½ inches (115.5 × 80 cm)
© Setsuko
Setsuko
Mandoline sur tissus grecs, 1987–88
Gouache on wood, 51 ¼ × 35 ⅛ inches (130 × 89 cm)
© Setsuko. Photo: Leonardo Cestari
Setsuko
Nature morte aux pommes de pins (Atelier à la Villa Medicis), c. 1970–79
Gouache on wood, 43 ½ × 35 ½ inches (110.5 × 90 cm)
© Setsuko
Setsuko
Nature morte avec cafetière, c. 1960
Gouache on paper, 26 ⅜ × 36 ¼ inches (67 × 92 cm)
© Setsuko. Photo: Leonardo Cestari
Nature is my master.
—Setsuko
Working across many mediums—including bronze, ceramics, and gouache—Setsuko Klossowska de Rola renders tranquil subjects with rich, tactile surfaces. Her work connects natural and constructed elements, representing the symbiosis of life and death, growth and decay. Her still lifes, interiors, and landscapes convey the joy of life embodied by natural forms, crafted objects, and intimate spaces.
Setsuko was born in 1942 in Tokyo. She attended the Jesuit-run Sophia University in Tokyo, learning about both Eastern and Western cultures, from Japanese calligraphy and Noh theater to European literature and ballet. In 1962, she relocated to Rome and began to paint, working principally in gouache and watercolor, and synthesizing Eastern aesthetic traditions with Western modernism. Setsuko’s elegant still lifes and domestic interiors convey her precise observation of everyday objects and living things, including flower arrangements, plants, and resting cats.
In 1977 Setsuko moved to the eighteenth-century Grand Chalet in Rossinière, Switzerland; she continues to live and work there and in Paris. In 1979, she held her first solo exhibition at Galleria Il Gabbiano, Rome, later showing at Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York and the Lefevre Gallery in London. In 2005, Setsuko was designated UNESCO’s Artist for Peace for her ongoing promotion of education, intercultural dialogue, and the preservation of global heritage.
To coincide with her exhibition Setsuko: Kingdom of Cats, at Gagosian, New York, the artist speaks with architect Peter Marino about her recent sculptures, paintings, and works on paper.
The Fall 2022 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Jordan Wolfson’s House with Face (2017) on its cover.
The artists address their shared ardor for poetry, the surfaces of painting, and nature.
Join Setsuko on a tour of her exhibition at the Musée national des châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau in Rueil-Malmaison, France, the former residence of Empress Joséphine. The video brings together the artist; Isabelle Tamisier-Vétois, chief curator, and Élisabeth Caude, director, Musée national des châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau; and Benoît Astier de Villatte, cofounder of the atelier Astier de Villatte, Paris. They discuss the origins and development of the project, which is designed as a dialogue between Setsuko’s work and the decorative ceramics held in the museum’s collection.
On the twentieth anniversary of Balthus’s death, Setsuko gives an intimate tour of the Grand Chalet and reflects on how the 1754 Swiss mountain home enriched their lives as artists.
As spring approaches in the Northern Hemisphere, Sydney Stutterheim reflects on the iconography and symbolism of the season in art both past and present.
Setsuko Klossowska de Rola and Benoît Astier de Villatte, of the Astier de Villatte atelier in Paris, first met at the Académie de France in Rome’s Villa Medici, where Setsuko lived when her late husband, the painter Balthus, was the school’s director. Here they discuss Setsuko’s newest body of terra-cotta works, produced at Astier de Villatte, with Gagosian’s Elsa Favreau.
The Fall 2019 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring a detail from Sinking (2019) by Nathaniel Mary Quinn on its cover.
Setsuko takes Jean-Olivier Després on a tour of her exhibition of terra-cotta and enameled ceramics in Paris, explaining her passion for trees and describing her approach to painting.
Request more information about
Setsuko
