Dates

Wed., January 25, 2023 – Sun., July 2, 2023

Venue

Exhibition room 2

Traveling with the Impressionists

The transportation system developed dramatically in 19th-century France. Railroads were built, and people began to travel from the city to nature-rich suburbs on their holidays, giving rise to the habit of enjoying leisure activities such as sea bathing, boating on the river, and picnicking in the forest.

The Impressionists traveled to a variety of countries and regions to make their paintings. Leaving behind their indoor studios, the artists began to depict the landscapes they saw in front of them, as the light gradually changed according to the weather and time of day, using bright colors and a nimble touch.

In this exhibition, we focus on the landscapes and light in several areas favored by the Impressionists. While Seurat chose Normandy, and Cézanne and Van Gogh opted for Provence, Monet preferred Venice, Renoir Algeria, and Gauguin Tahiti.

Postwar Abstract Painting

Over the approximately ten-year period that followed World War II, abstract painting began to flourish in art scenes throughout the world. In Europe, particularly France, this movement was referred to as Informel, while in the U.S. it became known as Abstract Expressionism. The term informel, coined by the French art critic Michel Tapié in the 1950s, means “atypical.” The movement’s leading figures abandoned conventional aesthetic notions and set out to create un art autre (“art of another kind”). Freeing themselves from the compositional and geometric images associated with the abstract, the artists attempted to express elements of the unconscious that could not be comprehended with the rational mind. In Europe, Tapié presented the Gutai Art Association, a group that emerged around the same time, as a Japanese version of Informel, and worked tirelessly to spread this French painting trend around the world.

Meanwhile, Abstract Expressionism, a movement generated by artists who had escaped war-torn Europe for America, avoided depicting concrete themes and motifs. Instead, they used color to make open forms with obscure contours in works that are strongly characterized by visible traces of the artist’s actions, process, and media on the canvas.

Léonard Foujita: Milky-White Skin

The “milky-white skin” that became the stylistic trademark of Léonard Foujita (Fujita Tsuguharu, 1886-1968) was based on the ukiyo-e technique of leaving areas of the white washi paper blank to represent the skin. Foujita painted the entire surface of the canvas white, then applied delicate black outlines and soft shadows to render female flesh. The fabric of the canvas was not of the standard type but rather handmade with a fine cloth usually used for shirts and so forth, and talc (or Siccarol containing talc) was mixed with the white ground to produce a milky white with a sense of transparency that found many enthusiastic fans in the artistic capital of Paris. It is no exaggeration to say that the outlines, painted in sumi ink with a menso brush, were what brought the milky white color to life.

Regarding these contour lines, Foujita wrote: “A line is not just an outer perimeter, it is something that should be sought from the core of an object. The artist must gaze at the subject deeply and capture the line precisely. To understand this requires training, so as to grasp the essence of beauty.” (Fujita Tsuguharu, “Sen no myomi [The Charm of Lines],” Zuihitsu shu: Chi-wo-oyogu [Swim on the Earth], Kodansya, 1984.)

In other words, Foujita chose these delicate ink lines applied with a menso brush in order to convey the essence of beauty of a female nude. Also, the white glow like a halo outside the contour lines, and the black blurring applied around that, create a mysterious visual effect that showcases the fluid and beautiful contour lines.