Léonard (Tsuguharu) Foujita, a Japanese-born artist who loved and was loved by Paris, arrived in France for the first time in 1913. This exhibition was held in the centenary year of Foujita's arrival in France, and focused on the period between 1913 and 1931, when he left France for Latin America. In addition to works dating from his Paris years, which constituted the first highly productive phase of Foujita's career, the exhibition included materials such as letters Foujita wrote to his wife in Japan, and works by artists with whom he associated in Paris.

The aforementioned two decades had a decisive impact on how Foujita established his foundation, or core qualities as an artist. Foujita took his first voyage to France in 1913, unaccompanied by his wife. He became accustomed to life in Paris soon after arrival, and started to gain attention as an artist. In the course of interacting with the École de Paris (School of Paris) artists, and establishing his own artistic language, Foujita increasingly became aware of his identity as a Japanese in a foreign land, and explored in his works fusions of East and West, which culminated in his adoption of a unique, milky-white ground.

This exhibition, the first in Japan to trace the evolution Foujita’s art underwent in Paris, looked at how early Paris-year works still suggestive of Japanese traditions and the training Foujita received at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts eventually gave way to works executed in his inimitable style, characterized most notably by the use of his signature white ground.

Exhibits :

• About 90 works of Foujita (oils and works on papers)
• More than 25 works of the artists in Paris at the time

Catalogue texts :

• Sylvie Buisson
• Sophie Krebs
• Yann le Pichons
• Satoshi Murakami

Lenders :

• Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
• Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nîmes
• Musée Faure, Aix-les-Bains, France
• Le Havre, Musée André Malraux
• Other public and private lenders

<image> Léonard Foujita
© Courtesy Archives Artistiques, Paris 2013