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Léonard Foujita (aka Tsuguharu Foujita, Tsugouharu Foujita, Fujita Tsuguji, Fujita, Reon?ru)

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Léonard Foujita (aka Tsuguharu Foujita, Tsugouharu Foujita, Fujita Tsuguji, Fujita, Reon?ru) does not have an image.


Léonard Foujita
(Painter and printmaker active in France, 1886-1968)
French (b. Japan), (1886–1968)
Born and educated in Japan but moving to Paris in 1913, Foujita lived a bohemian lifestyle in Montparnasse where he made the acquaintance of Picasso, Van Dongen, Modigliani and others who inspired him to paint in the Cubist manner. He went on to create his own style drawing on his Oriental heritage and his European surroundings. Foujita enjoyed success in France and was named "Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur de France" and "Chevalier de l'ordre de Leopolde de Belgique". After a 17 year absence he returned to exhibit in his homeland and spent time in North and South America. He became a French citizen in 1955 and converted to Catholicism four years later. At the age of 80, he completed his last major work - creating the Chapelle Notre-Dame de la Paix in Reims. Some of his illustrated books include "Betes & Cie," 1928; "A Book of Cats," 1930 and "La Mesangere," 1963. Foujita, born and educated in Tokyo, set out for France in 1913 to “master” modern western art. Taking a studio on Montarnasse, he joined a lively artistic circle encompassing Pable Picasso, Kees von Dongen, and the celebrated Kiki de Montparnasse -- who posed nude, and clothed, for Foujita, and for photographer man Ray, sculptor Alexander Calder and others. Although Foujita left Paris to live in japan and elsewhere during the 1930s and 1940s, he returned to France in 1949 and was naturalized a citizen in 1959.
Carleton College owns five prints by Foujita including two self-portraits in which the artist appears with a cat, and three others featuring solitary cats.

* Merritt, Helen and Yamada, Nanako, "Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints 1900-1975", University of Hawaii Press, 1995, ISBN 0-8248-1732-X
* Lane, Richard, "Images from the Floating World: The Japanese Print", Fribourg, 1978, ISBN 0-914427-54-7
* Laurance, P.Roberts, "A Dictionary of Japanese Artists", John Weatherhill Inc., New York, 1976
* Frances Blakemore "Who is Who in Modern Japanese Prints", John Weatherhill, New York and Tokyo, 1975. ISBN 0-8348-0101-9
* Annual CWAJ catalogs


Artist Objects

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