Special Exhibition "Tsuguharu Foujita: Cat and Girl's Room"
Image of the work: "Cat's Classroom" 1949, oil on canvas, Karuizawa Ando Museum of Art
Event Overview
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Exhibition Overview
The Karuizawa Ando Museum of Art opened in Karuizawa last October as the first museum in Japan to permanently exhibit only the works of Tsuguharu Foujita. Following the opening exhibition, the museum will hold a special exhibition, "Tsuguharu Foujita: Room of a Cat and a Girl," from Friday, March 3, 2023 to Tuesday, September 12, 2023.
Our museum houses a collection of approximately 200 works by Tsuguharu Foujita, a leading painter of the École de Paris, which has been collected by Yasushi Ando and his wife Megumi over the course of approximately 20 years. The collection began with a print they came across by chance in a gallery while on a walk. Captivated by the adorable cat depicted in the print, the couple subsequently began to collect not only cats but also works featuring young girls.
In honor of the "Cat and Girl" series, which inspired the founding of the museum, this exhibition will feature a special exhibition titled "Cat and Girl's Room." In addition, the exhibition will also feature a diverse and valuable collection of works representative of Foujita's artistic career from each period, including nudes with the "milky white background" that is synonymous with his work, precious early landscapes, and majestic and tranquil religious paintings painted in his later years as Léonard Foujita. This will bring you a total of 120 works from the Ando Collection. Also making its debut is the invaluable work "Cat's Classroom," painted during his stay in New York in 1949. Please enjoy these masterpieces, which feature lively, expressive, and humorous cats, overflowing with energy.
Exhibition Highlights
"Girl and Cat in Front of the Roofs of Paris" 1955 Oil on canvas
A girl gazing straight ahead with two cats. This work was painted by Fujita after he returned to Paris after the war. From this time on, children, especially girls, began to appear frequently in Fujita's motifs. The cuteness of the girl and cat, radiating a fresh glow along with the nostalgic scenery of Paris, forms the core of the Ando Collection.
"Cat's Classroom" 1949, oil on canvas
This work was painted during a stay in New York on the way back to France from Japan. The unique expressions of the anthropomorphized cats are truly charming, and this scene from a fun, everyday classroom seems to convey the joy of an era in which peace has been restored. The work perfectly captures Fujita's signature feline expressions, with the fine whiskers, detailed fur, and humorous expressions of the cats.
Nude with Arms Raised, 1924, oil on canvas
This work uses a new painting technique known as the "milky ground," which brought Fujita "tremendous success" at the École de Paris. It is a valuable work with the same composition as the second woman from the left in "Five Nudes" (owned by the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo), which was exhibited at the 16th Salon d'Automne in 1923.