Exhibition at the Musée Maillol, Paris
Foujita” exhibition
Fifty years after Foujita’s death in 1968, the Musée Maillol, in partnership with the Fondation Foujita, honors the singular and luminous work of this Franco-Japanese painter. More than a hundred works from public and private collections tell the story of Foujita’s Roaring Twenties in Montparnasse, surrounded by his friends and contemporaries. The exhibition thus focuses on the artist’s first Parisian period, between 1913 and 1931, and presents the career, inspirations and friendships of an artist trained at the Tokyo Ecole des Beaux-Arts who had only one desire: to live and succeed in Paris.
Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita was an emblematic figure who seduced the Parisian elite during the Roaring Twenties, dreaming of becoming, in his own words, ” the first painter in Paris “. His arrival in the capital was a real turning point in his rise to fame and the revelation of his work.
The exhibition presents the artist’s unique career during his first period in Paris, evolving between two cultures and revealing a delicate art between East and West.
The exhibition also highlights the plurality of Foujita’s work, and compares it with that of his contemporaries, including Modigliani, Soutine, Zadkine, Indenbaum, Kisling and Pascin. Photographs, archival documents, personal objects, monumental canvases, as well as sound and video recordings enrich the scenography. The exhibition features nearly one hundred major works from some 45 private collections from around the world, as well as from outstanding museums and institutions.
A multi-faceted creative genius, Foujita had a powerful impact on his era. Two of his monumental dyptiches, dating from 1928, on loan from the Conseil départemental de l’Essonne, demonstrate the artist’s virtuoso power, but also his incredible subtlety and modernity. The works on display are set at the heart of the Années Folles, and pay tribute to Foujita’s artistic abundance. During this interwar period, which was experienced as a festive interlude in the art world, Foujita was eagerly welcomed and celebrated, from bals-costumés in Montparnasse to Deauville. Foujita cultivated his image as a dandy, festive and worldly, and shaped his image as an elegant, charming man at the forefront of fashion. For the media, he embodies success and modernity beyond convention and borders.
Exhibition from March 7 to July 15, 2018
at the Musée Maillol
59-61, rue de Grenelle 75007 Paris
10:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. daily
They’re talking about :
- Fragments d’Histoire – Video documentary Painting in the Roaring Twenties
- France 5 – Entrée libre – The most Parisian of the Japanese
- The New-York Review of Books – Foujita: Imperial Japan Meets Bohemian Paris
- Radio Notre-Dame – Interview with Carole Boivineau, Managing Director of the Fondation Foujita
- Le Journal des Arts – Foujita in fifty shades of white
- L’express – Foujita resurrected
- France Culture – Foujita, the most Parisian of Japanese, a journey through the Roaring Twenties
- Télé Matin – Exhibition – Foujita: Painting in the Roaring Twenties
- The Guardian – Back in favour: Japanese master who outshone Picasso in 1920s Paris
- Les Inrockuptibles – Who really was Foujita, the Japanese painter of the Roaring Twenties?
- Nova – Japanese in the Roaring Twenties: Foujita, a painter apart?
- Le Figaro Culture – Not so crazy Foujita
- Le Point – Private visit to the Foujita exhibition at the Musée Maillol
- Pariscope – The exquisite softness of Foujita’s canvases on show at the Musée Maillol
- Télérama – Who really was Foujita, the great Japanese painter of the Roaring Twenties?
- Vogue US – Celebrating Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita, a Jazz Age Art Icon, and Dandy, In Paris
- franceinfo – Foujita, the most French of Japanese painters, exhibited in Paris
- Les Soirées de Paris – The Foujita parenthesis
- La Grande Parade – Foujita – painting in the Roaring Twenties: the abundant, enchanting output of the most eccentric of the Ecole de Paris painters during his first Parisian period.
- Toute La Culture – Rediscovering Foujita’s Années folles at the Musée Maillol
- RTBF – 7 monographs not to be missed in 2018
- AD Magazine – The major exhibitions of 2018
