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Edvard Munch (1863-1944)—the great modern painter and creator of The Scream, one of the world’s best-known paintings. The oil and tempera version of The Scream now in the Munch Museum collection—one of several versions by Munch—will make its long-awaited first appearance in Japan.
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Whether shared picnic boxes or everyday lunch boxes, bento holds deep significance in our lives in Japan. This exhibition looks at Japan’s unique culture of “bento” and “eating” from the perspective of communication design, through works by contemporary artists. A see, hear, touch, and participate exhibition, fun for families and adults too.
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This project, operated in conjunction with Tokyo University of the Arts, is aimed at fostering an active, open art community with the Museum as a central stage. The project is led by art communicators (“Tobira”), who are given responsibility for growing a community.
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A program linking all 9 cultural facilities in Ueno Park to support children in their "museum debut." The program provides a "flat" learning environment where adults and children learn on an equal basis. Through experiences of seeing, listening, and speaking, children come to understand the fun and excitement of visiting an art museum.
Self-Portrait
1929, Oil on Canvas, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
© Fondation Foujita / ADAGP, Paris & JASPAR, Tokyo, 2017 E2833
When reaching his prime as an artist in Paris in the mid-1920s, Foujita often painted self-portraits in his studio. Here, we see him in his distinctive bowl haircut, round glasses, toothbrush mustache, and single earring—the image he devised for himself as an artist who drew from traditional Japanese techniques to perfect a style of painting on a milky-white ground. The work was displayed in the 10th Teiten exhibition in 1929 on his first return to Japan in 16 years.
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Portrait of Emily Crane Chadbourne
1922, The Art Institute of Chicago / Gift of Emily Crane Chadbourne, 1952. 997
© The Art Institute of Chicago / Art Resource, NY
© Fondation Foujita / ADAGP, Paris & JASPAR, Tokyo, 2017 E2833
One of Foujita’s most important figure paintings of the 1920s—in its first appearance in Japan. The patterns and feel of the clothing and sofa are depicted in fine detail against a background of silver foil. Although Foujita often used gold foil in the 1920s, his use of silver foil is confirmed only in this work. The client and model for the painting was a wealthy American woman from Chicago living in Paris at the time, who donated her collection to a Chicago museum in her late years.
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Nude with Tapestry
1923, Oil on Canvas, The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
© Fondation Foujita / ADAGP, Paris & JASPAR, Tokyo, 2017 E2833
Among Foujita’s nudes of the early 1920s are works using decorative cotton fabric as a contrast to enhance the whiteness of his subject’s skin. In this work, the artist—applying his descriptive power to the background as well as the figure—faithfully depicts a “Toile de Jouy” French print fabric displaying exotic floral patterns. A painting exhibited in the 1923 Salon des Tuileries.
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Combat (Cats)
1940, Oil on Canvas, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
© Fondation Foujita / ADAGP, Paris & JASPAR, Tokyo, 2017 E2833
One of Foujita’s best known works dealing with cats. Painted in Paris as the German army advanced, after the outbreak of World War II, it shows 14 cats in fighting postures of all kinds—leaping cats, screaming cats, and rolling cats. The bold composition with its swirling movement and detailed rendering is masterfully accomplished. On returning to Japan, Foujita displayed the work in the 27th Nika Exhibition in early autumn, 1940, under the title Soto (“Combat”).
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At the Café
1949, Oil on Canvas, Centre Pompidou, Paris, Musée national d’art moderne-Centre de création industrielle
Photo © Musée La Piscine (Roubaix), Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Arnaud Loubry / distributed by AMF
© Fondation Foujita / ADAGP, Paris & JASPAR, Tokyo, 2017 E2833
A work Foujita painted in New York, where he stayed on leaving Japan in March 1949. Behind the woman, a Paris-like street corner with the café “Le Petite Madeleine” can be seen through the window. While using fine black contour lines to bring out the three-dimensionality of his subject, the painting simultaneously states the appeal of black as a color in the woman’s dress and bag, and the gentleman’s hat. Its frame, handmade by the artist, is decorated with suitable motifs for a café.
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Adoration
1962-63, Oil on Canvas, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
© Musee d' Art Moderne / Roger-Viollet
© Fondation Foujita / ADAGP, Paris & JASPAR, Tokyo, 2017 E2833
Before a Virgin Mary dressed in intricately patterned clothing, Foujita and his wife Kimiyo kneel and pray in monastic gowns. Arrayed around them are girls and small animals, and appearing in the background is the house in Villiers-le-Bâcle to which they had moved the previous year. Against the “milky-white” ground, the foreground colors are striking in their brightness and contrasts. A major work of Foujita’s late years, considered the culmination of his art.
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