Phillips
Announces
Foujita
/Sanyu: Muses and Models
A
Comprehensive Exhibition of Foujita and Sanyu
To
Debut in Paris, Followed by Hong Kong
Phillips
Paris: 19 – 30 March 2019
Phillips
Hong Kong: 18 – 31 May 2019
PARIS - 28 FEBRUARY 2019 - Phillips’ upcoming
selling exhibition, Foujita /Sanyu: Muses
and Models, is set to transform the Paris galleries of 46 Rue du Bac from 19 to 30 March, 2019.
Presenting some 30 works focusing on the 1920s and 1930s of Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita (1886-1968) and Sanyu (1895-1966), the exhibition pays homage to the
artists’ exploration of the subject of the female
nude, which made them pioneers of their generation. It marks the first exhibition curated by Clara Rivollet, who recently
joined Phillips Paris as International Specialist. The exhibition opens to the
public in concert with the Salon du Dessin, an important art fair
dedicated to drawings, before travelling to Phillips’ Hong Kong galleries in
the St. George’s Building from 18 to 31 May, 2019, coinciding with the Le French May arts festival and the
Spring auctions.
Fittingly, Foujita /Sanyu: Muses and Models will launch
in Paris, the city critical to the development of both artists. It was here
that Foujita and Sanyu’s styles evolved in dialogue with their Western
contemporaries, notably Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Chaim Soutine, Fernand
Léger, and Man Ray. Foujita and Sanyu bridged Asian and Western traditions,
merging traditional techniques derived from Japanese printing and Chinese
calligraphy with the modern, liberal sensuality they encountered by living and
working in Paris during the 1920s.
Clara Rivollet, International Specialist of 20th
Century & Contemporary Art, said
“We are delighted to be launching this
exhibition in Paris, an homage to the city which served as a backdrop for the
Post WWI golden decade of emancipation, creative emulation and fruitful
cultural exchanges. It marks the first time that Foujita and Sanyu are
presented together in a dedicated exhibition. While Foujita benefited from the
Musée Maillol retrospective last year in Paris, since Sanyu’s unique Museum
show at Musée Guimet in 2004 he has been underrepresented in France. We are
happy to offer our French audience a chance to discover his work. Both Foujita
& Sanyu’s groundbreaking modernity offers a positive message with a hint of
subversion, still very much relevant today.”
In conjunction with the exhibition, Phillips will
host a panel discussion on 21 March with Sylvie Buisson, the Foujita expert and
author of the catalogue raisonné in conversation with Jean-Paul Desroches,
former Musée Guimet General Conservator and organiser of the exhibition Sanyu, Language of the Body (L’Ecriture
du corps) in 2004 at Musée Guimet. Titled ‘Trait pour trait, Foujita/Sanyu’, the
discussion will be moderated by Clara Rivollet.
Foujita and Sanyu - A Comparative Journey
After a
short stay in Tokyo, Sanyu settled in a cosmopolitan Paris in 1921. That same
year, Foujita - who had set up studio in Montparnasse in 1913 - completed his
first nude painting titled Nu allongé avec Chat’ (Collection Petit
Palais, Geneva, Switzerland).
Hailing from
Japan and China respectively, Foujita and Sanyu were both inspired and
transformed by Paris and their engagement with the artistic avant-garde,
mingling with their contemporaries at la Coupole or la Rotonde and at the
dissenting artistic salon gatherings.
The artists also encountered the female nude as a liberated model, as
the women’s movement gathered momentum, championed by such fascinating and
controversial personalities as music hall star Mistinguette, artists’ muse and
Man Ray’s lover Kiki de Montparnasse (who modelled both for Foujita and
Sanyu), and the subversive singer Suzy Solidor, depicted by Foujita in 1927. Both Foujita and Sanyu’s
works offer glimpses of this uniquely rich ecosystem of emancipation, extreme
creativity and cultural exchange which, though it collapsed with the beginning
of WWII, remains to this day one of the most important and formative periods in
the history of modern art.
Drawing on the Japanese print tradition which chooses to ignore the
representation of depth, Foujita’s hair-thin brush skillfully outlines the
disinhibited female nude model against a porcelain-white solid ground. His
command of the line and attention to detail result in a unique, almost surreal
representation of the subject. While Foujita seeks perfection, Sanyu favours
spontaneity, deliberately stylising the female body to a few modulated lines,
successfully translating the logic of the Chinese character as an artistic
form.
Clara Rivollet
Clara
Rivollet has recently joined Phillips as International Specialist of 20th
Century & Contemporary Art, based in Paris.
Clara is a
key business-getter for 20th Century & Contemporary Art across France, Belgium
and Switzerland. Primarily supporting 20th Century & Contemporary Art sales
in Asia, she also leads all client engagement activities in our Paris space.
This includes auction highlight tours, private selling exhibitions, pop up
shows and talks, and selected third party events.
Before
joining Phillips, Clara spent over seven years as a Specialist in Christie’s
Paris, where she was a key business getter in Europe for their Asian
Contemporary Art sale in Hong Kong. Clara also worked at SAKS Gallery from 2010
to 2011.
PHILLIPS PARIS
Exhibition: 19
– 30 March 2019
Location: 46 Rue du Bac, Paris 75007
PHILLIPS
HONG KONG
Exhibition: 18
– 31 May 2019
Location: 14/F,
St. George’s Building, 2 Ice House Street, Central Hong Kong
###
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PRESS CONTACTS:
PARIS
- Jasmine Spezie, CEO, IC Insight Communications Jasmine@insightcommunications.cc +33 1 42 84 19 09
LONDON - Katie Carder, Head of Press, Europe kcarder@phillips.com +44 20 7901 7938
HONG KONG – Ingrid Hsu, Public Relations Director, Asia ingridhsu@phillips.com
+852 2318 2043
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