藤田嗣治-Nude-

NUKAGA GALLERY is proud to present a traveling exhibition between 2 cities titled “Tsuguharu Foujita –Nude-“, from September 26, 2019 in Tokyo, and December 12, 2019 in Osaka.

This exhibition will focus on nude paintings by Tsuguharu Foujita from the 1920’s to early 1930’s, along with still-life paintings and drawings from the same period. Foujita started to paint nude works as if to follow the footsteps of his close friend, Modigliani, soon after his death. In 1921, Foujita submitted a large painting of a reclining nude to the 14th Salon d’automne. Foujita’s nude won lavish praise from the Parisian audience, with its fine, black outlines inspired by Ukiyoe (Japanese woodblock) artists such as Harunobu Suzuki, Utamaro Kitagawa, etc., drawn on a distinct white background which will later become widely praised as “grand fond blanc” (exquisite milky white). From then on, through exhibitions at art salons and galleries, Foujita went on to gain reputation and rose in fame.

“Nu, Youki aux longs cheveux” (1923) and “Femme nue couchée” (1924) are both works from Foujita’s peak, upon climbing to the top of the Paris art circle with his unique “milky white” technique. The model is Foujita’s third wife, Lucie Badoud, whom Foujita called “Youki (Yuki)” because of her pale skin which was white as snow (snow in Japanese = yuki). In the work titled “Grand nu (Madeleine Lequeux)” (1932), Foujita’s muse throughout the 1930’s, Madeleine Lequeux’s supple limbs are drawn in the traditional reclining nude composition. Alongside these nude paintings, Foujita’s prominent still-life paintings “Vase de roses” (1922) and “Nature morte à la boîte d’allumettes” (1923) will also be presented in this exhibition. From simple, everyday Parisian motifs, such as a vase, a “toile de Jouy” (French antique cloth from a suburb of Paris called Jouy-en-Josas)” and a matchbox, to the traditional European motif of nudes, Foujita presented a unique texture and perspective which were worlds apart from Western art, with his distinct “grand fond blanc” ground and fine outlines drawn with Japanese black ink.

As Foujita himself states, “I decided to draw ‘texture’, the most important factor of a painting, through expression of the soft skin which almost seems as if your finger will sink in if you touch it.” What Foujita pursued in painting was not the quality of color nor form of an object, but “texture”. Through this exhibition, we encourage the viewers to reexamine the “texture” that Foujita pursued, by focusing on his works from the 1920’s to the early 1930’s, a crucial period in which Foujita established his unique technique and expression in Paris, the city of art, and succeeded to construct a new language of painting.