Click Here for Round Glasses Portrait of Foujita, 1927 -by Madame D’Ora His name in Japanese means "field of wisteria, heir to peace." He was the son of a general, a black belt at judo. And in the 1920s—known as Fou-Fou or Mad-Mad—he was the most famous and the most eccentric artist in Montparnasse. He had a haircut modeled on an Egyptian statue and a wristwatch tattoo around his wrist. He wore earrings, a Greek-style tunic, a "Babylonian" necklace, and on occasion a lampshade instead of a hat. (He claimed it was his national headdress.) Woman and Cat, 1937 He'd arrived in Paris from Tokyo in 1913 and had soon rented a studio in the Cité Falguière, where Modigliani and the Lithuanian-born painter Chaim Soutine were already working. Foujita was a good cook, I read; he was meticulously clean—he tried to teach Soutine to brush his teeth and to use a knife and a fork. Foujita had frequented Isadora and Raymond Duncan's school of movement and dance (hence the Greek-style tunics). He'd favored the Café La Rotonde, where Trotsky used to play chess, over the Dôme, the favorite haunt of the Fauvists. Foujita, Paris, juin 1957 -by Thérèse Le Prat He was apparently an adept dressmaker, courting his future wife, the painter Fernande Barrey, by making her a blouse. (He stayed up all night to do it.) He talked endlessly to Modigliani, the books said, about the traditions of Japanese painting; and it was partly through the influence of Foujita's background and methods—he'd found a way of painting in black on a porcelain-white oil background—that Modigliani became (like Foujita himself) one of the few Montparnasse artists to favor line over color. Foujita, 1954 -by Sabine Weiss In 1931 Foujita traveled and painted all over Latin America, giving hugely successful exhibitions along the way. Two years later he was welcomed back as a star to Japan; and he stayed there—through Mady's death in 1935 (probably from drugs)—till 1939, when he returned once more to Paris. He didn't stay in France long, however. The threat of German invasion forced him back to Japan, where he was enlisted as a war artist, first for the conflict between Japan and China and then, after Pearl Harbor, for the war against the Allies. He was only able to return to his beloved France in 1950. Excerpts from Lost Art: The strange life of Tsuguharu Foujita, the toast of 1920's Montparnasse, more successful than Picasso at his peak, and now forgotten (except by connoisseurs of line drawings) by Jo Durden-Smith for Departures (1999) Quai aux Fleurs- Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita Jil Sander tribute to Foujita Foujita, ‘Cafe’ (1918) Foujita - Les deux amies, brune et blonde (detail) Leonard Foujita, Self-portrait, 1926 My Dream, 1947 Available at Hotel de Ville 7422 Beverly Blvd Los Angeles Ca 90036 323 634 9911

Nature morte dEt ,1963 signed L. Foujita (lower right) oil on canvas ; (55 x 46.1 cm.) Roses, 1958 Lithographie en couleurs sur vlin;Roses,1955 FLEURS Oil on canvas; 1963 FLEURS: A TWO-PANEL SCREEN Fleurs (volubilis), 1964 LES FLEURS Aquarelle et encre sur papier…

Foujita, Léonard Tsuguharu

The roaring twenties were awe inspiring, but as we see the Gatsby style parties and the absinthe fueled bacchanalia, we realize that probably less than 20

The life of Tsuguharu Foujita reads like a long lost Wes Anderson movie — and looks like one, too. The expat artist arrived in Paris from Japan in the 1920s, and with his prim bowl cut, button-ups, tiny spectacles (and curious passion for cats), his eccentricity made him the crème de la crème of the

Oil on canvas; 41.2 x 33.3 cm. Léonard Tsugouharu Foujita was a painter and printmaker born in Tokyo, Japan who applied Japanese ink techniques to Western style paintings. Immediately after graduating secondary school, Foujita wished to study in France, but on the advice of Mori Ogai (his father's senpai military physician) he decided to study western art in Japan first. In 1910 when he was twenty-four years old Foujita graduated from what is now the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. His paintings during the period before he moved to France were often signed "Fujita" rather than the gallicized "Foujita" he adopted later. Three years later he went to Montparnasse in Paris, France. When he arrived there, knowing nobody, he met Amedeo Modigliani, Pascin, Chaim Soutine, and Fernand Léger and became friends with Juan Gris, Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. Foujita claimed in his memoir that he met Picasso less than a week after his arrival, but a recent biographer, relying on letters Foujita sent to his first wife in Japan, clearly shows that it was several months until he met Picasso. He also took dance lessons from the legendary Isadora Duncan.[2] Foujita had his first studio at no. 5 rue Delambre in Montparnasse... Many models came over to Foujita's place to enjoy this luxury, among them Man Ray's very liberated lover, Kiki, who boldly posed for Foujita in the nude... Another portrait of Kiki titled "Reclining Nude with Toile de Jouy .... was the sensation of Paris at the Salon d'Automne in 1922, selling for more than 8,000 francs.... Within a few years, particularly after his 1918 exposition, he achieved great fame as a painter of beautiful women and cats in a very original technique. He is one of the few Montparnasse artists who made a great deal of money in his early years. By 1925, Tsuguharu Foujita had received the Belgian Order of Leopold and the French government awarded him the Legion of Honor. After the breakup of his third marriage, and his flight to Brazil in 1931 (with his new love, Mady), Foujita traveled and painted all over Latin America, giving hugely successful exhibitions along the way. In Buenos Aires, Argentina, 60,000 people attended his exhibition, and more than 10,000 queued up for his autograph. In 1932 he contributed a work to the Pax Mundi, a large folio book produced by the League of Nations calling for a prolonged world peace.[3] However, by 1933 he was welcomed back as a minor celebrity to Japan where he stayed and became a noted producer of militaristic propaganda during the war. For example, in 1938 the Imperial Navy Information Office supported his visit to China as an official war artist. On his return to France, Foujita converted to Catholicism. He was baptised in Reims cathedral on 14 October 1959, with René Lalou (the head of the Mumm champagne house) as his godfather and Françoise Taittinger as his godmother. This is reflected in his last major work,at the age of 80, the design, building and decoration of the Foujita chapel in the gardens of the Mumm champagne house in Reims, France, which he completed in 1966, not long before his death. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsuguharu_Foujita

Portrait-de-Madame-Tedesko Nu 1922 Portrait de l'artiste, Titre attribu: Autoportrait au chat Mon intrieur Paris ou Nature morte au rveil-matin 1922 Mon intrieur, Paris Titre attribu Nature morte l'accordon 1950, Le quai aux fleurs,…

Until July 3

Tsugouharu Foujita, n.d.

Человек, который был бесспорным любимцем своей матери, через всю свою жизнь проносит чувство победителя и уверенности в удачу, которые нередко приводят к действительному успеху. З. Фрейд. А этот художник и был любимцем своей матери, и его, в общем-то и не забудешь. Раз увидев его…