Menu

Setsuko

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, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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 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

Setsuko, Nature morte avec cafetière, c. 1960

Gouache on paper, 26 ⅜ × 36 ¼ inches (67 × 92 cm)
© Setsuko. Photo: Leonardo Cestari

About

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.

Read more

Setsuko

Photo: Thomas Lannes

Jordan Wolfson’s House with Face (2017) on the cover of Gagosian Quarterly, Fall 2022

Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Fall 2022

The Fall 2022 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Jordan Wolfson’s House with Face (2017) on its cover.

Y.Z. Kami, Night Painting I (for William Blake), 2017–18, oil on linen, 99 × 99 inches (251.5 × 251.5 cm) © Y.Z. Kami. Photo: Rob McKeever

In Conversation
Setsuko and Y.Z. Kami

The artists address their shared ardor for poetry, the surfaces of painting, and nature.

Setsuko standing in front of one of her decorative ceramic pieces in the Musée national des châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau, Rueil-Malmaison, France

Regards de Setsuko

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.

Setsuko in front of the Grand Chalet de Rossinière in Switzerland where she lives and works.

The Grand Chalet: An interview with Setsuko

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.

Augurs of Spring

Augurs of Spring

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, Paris, 2019

Work in Progress
Setsuko

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 cover of the Fall 2019 Gagosian Quarterly magazine. Artwork by Nathaniel Mary Quinn

Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Fall 2019

The Fall 2019 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring a detail from Sinking (2019) by Nathaniel Mary Quinn on its cover.

The artist Setsuko in Paris

Behind the Art
Setsuko: Into the Trees

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.

Fairs, Events & Announcements

Setsuko in her exhibition Into Nature at Gagosian, Gstaad, 2023. Artwork © Setsuko. Photo: © GstaadLife Magazine/Sven Pieren

Tour

Setsuko
Into Nature

Saturday, August 19, 2023, 4pm
Gagosian, Gstaad

Join Setsuko for a tour of her exhibition Into Nature, on view at Gagosian, Gstaad, through September 10. The exhibition features new and recent ceramic and bronze sculptures, paintings, and works on paper by the artist. Since 1977, Setsuko has resided in the Grand Chalet of Rossinière, close to Gstaad, making this an opportunity for her to exhibit within reach of her Swiss home.

Register

Setsuko in her exhibition Into Nature at Gagosian, Gstaad, 2023. Artwork © Setsuko. Photo: © GstaadLife Magazine/Sven Pieren

Gagosian’s booth at FIAC 2021. Artwork, left to right: © Giuseppe Penone/2021 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris; © Michael Heizer; © Georg Baselitz, 2021; © Pier Paolo Calzolari. Photo: Thomas Lannes

Art Fair

FIAC 2021

October 21–24, 2021, booth B23
Grand Palais Éphémère, Paris
fiac.com

Gagosian is pleased to participate in FIAC 2021 with a presentation of painting, sculpture, and works on paper by gallery artists. The booth will feature works by Georg Baselitz, Edmund de Waal, Helen Frankenthaler, Theaster Gates, Katharina Grosse, Simon Hantaï, Takashi Murakami, Albert Oehlen, Steven Parrino, Auguste Rodin, Sterling RubySetsukoJim Shawand Cy Twombly, among others. A selection of the works will also appear on gagosian.com and in FIAC’s Online Viewing Room.

To receive a pdf with detailed information on the works, please contact the gallery at inquire@gagosian.com. To attend the fair, purchase tickets at fiac.com.

Gagosian’s booth at FIAC 2021. Artwork, left to right: © Giuseppe Penone/2021 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris; © Michael Heizer; © Georg Baselitz, 2021; © Pier Paolo Calzolari. Photo: Thomas Lannes

Jeff Koons, Bluebird Planter, 2010–16 © Jeff Koons

Art Fair

FIAC Online 2021
Printemps oublié

March 2–12, 2021

Gagosian is pleased to present Printemps oublié for the first online edition of FIAC. This curated presentation reflects the dual character of springtime as a reminder of past trials and the harbinger of a vibrant new season to come.

All the artworks will appear on the Gagosian website and a rotating selection will appear in the inaugural FIAC Online Viewing Rooms, from March 4 to 7.

Jeff Koons, Bluebird Planter, 2010–16 © Jeff Koons

See all News for Setsuko

Museum Exhibitions

Installation view, Regards de Setsuko, Musée national des châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau, Rueil-Malmaison, France, October 13–November 15, 2021. Artwork © Setsuko

Closed

Regards de Setsuko

October 13–November 15, 2021
Musée national des châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau, Rueil-Malmaison, France
musees-nationaux-malmaison.fr

This exhibition, whose title translates to Regards from Setsuko, is designed as a dialogue between Setsuko’s works and the decorative ceramics held in the Musée national des châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau, the former residence of Empress Joséphine. Joséphine is known to have loved nature and botany, two themes that are plentifully evident in Setsuko’s work.

Installation view, Regards de Setsuko, Musée national des châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau, Rueil-Malmaison, France, October 13–November 15, 2021. Artwork © Setsuko

Balthus, Paysage de Monte Calvello, 1978 © Balthus

Closed

Découpage
A Labour of Love

July 1–October 17, 2021
Tarmak22, Gstaad Saanen Airport, Switzerland
www.tarmak22.com

Découpage presents more than 150 cut-paper works made in the nineteenth and twentieth century by Swiss masters. Tracing the origins and development of the paper cutout, the exhibition honors the craft’s history and its Swiss heritage while creating a dialogue with a selection of contemporary artworks brought to Gstaad by collaborators including Gagosian. Work by Balthus, Richard Prince, and Setsuko is included.

Balthus, Paysage de Monte Calvello, 1978 © Balthus