Leonard Foujita, Autoportait, 1926, huile sur toile, 95,5x68,5cm, Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts

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10 Jun 2020

Foujita and Paris

- Modernity and the Japanese painter
by Toshio Shimizu
Live from Tokyo, Japon
The École des modernités

Born in Japan in 1886, Léonard Foujitacame to Paris in 1913 at the age of 27. He quickly became one of the key figures of the cosmopolitan capital in the inter-war period, as much for his painting as for his eccentric personality. He became known for his portraits and interior scenes. After a return to Japan in 1933, he settled permanently in France in 1950. A rich and complex figure of modernity, Léonard Foujita creates a dialogue between the heritage of Japanese painting and modern painting.

Photo © Toshio Shimizu

Toshio Shimizu is an art historian and critic, and a curator. He is Professor at the Gakushuin Women’s College, Tokyo. Trained at the Sorbonne University, at the University of Tokyo and at the École du Louvre, he is a specialist of the work of Leonard Foujita. Former director of the Art Tower Mito, he organized several projects on contemporary artists. He was the director of the Japanese Pavilion for the 2010 World’s Fair in Shanghai, before creating the Toshio Shimizu Art Office. He taught in many universities (Tokyo Zokei, Meiji Gakuin, University of Tokyo). Along with contemporary art exhibitions, he was curator of  « Visions of Tomorrow : New York and American industrialization in the 1920s-1930s (Isetan Museum of Art, Tokyo, 1988). On Foujita, he published a monograph in 2002, and more recently, in 2018, he curated an important exhibition (Sanno Art Museum Osaka, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Kyoto National Museum of Modern Art).

Practical information
Live conference in English
Wednesday, 10 June 2020 at 12:00 p.m. Paris Time / 7:00 p.m. Tokyo Time / GMT-UTC : 10:00 am

Videos

Toshio Shimizu - Foujita et Paris - La modernité et le peintre japonais

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