3rd Anniversary Project: Reims Museum Collection: From Tsuguharu Foujita to Léonard Foujita: The Path to Prayer

Exhibition Overview

During World War II, Foujita was criticized by the Japanese art world for painting war paintings and was asked to put his painter down for a while. In 1949, he left Japan and returned to Paris via New York. However, the glory and vitality he enjoyed in the 1920s were no longer there. In Exorcism: Exorcism of the Spirit (oil on glass, Karuizawa Ando Museum of Art), created in 1952, two years after his return to France, Foujita's inner anguish and conflict are written in French, and he is depicted kneeling and looking up to the heavens, crying out, "Give me strength."
During this time, Fujita once again became interested in the religious paintings he had worked on in the 1910s. After returning to Paris, he repeatedly painted images of young girls incorporating religious symbols, and produced many works with the theme of mother and child. These motifs were eventually sublimated into the Virgin Mary and Child.

In 1959, Fujita was baptized into the Catholic Church at Reims Cathedral along with Kimiyo, beginning a new path of faith. His baptismal name was "Leonard Fujita," after his beloved Leonardo da Vinci. Fujita dedicated a painting of the Virgin and Child to Reims Cathedral, bearing his name and the date of his baptism.
Incidentally, at the time of his baptism, his godparents were René Lalou, director of Mumm, a long-established champagne maker in Reims with whom Fujita had a close friendship, and Beatrice, wife of François, a member of the Taittinger family. René Lalou also responded to Fujita's wish to build a chapel, providing him with land adjacent to Mumm and arranging the construction costs, among other efforts to make it a reality. Once the decision to build the chapel was made official, Fujita completed a large number of sketches for the building's decorations and frescoes, and completed the murals on all four walls of the chapel in just three months.

Exhibition Room 2 unravels the relationship between Foujita and Reims through the Virgin and Child, which was donated to Reims Cathedral. Exhibition Room 3 features statues of a young girl and mother and child, both of which incorporate religious symbols. And Exhibition Room 4 introduces Chapelle Foujita, a masterpiece by Foujita, who became a Christian. Please enjoy this unprecedented special exhibition that delves into the profound abyss of both art and faith, the realm that Foujita reached.