Syvie Buisson reçoit à la Coupole Anne Watanabe, la célèbre actrice japonaise, pour la lui faire visiter et lui parler de Foujita dont un tableau figure dans la future exposition consacrée à la Bretagne au Musée national d’Art occidental de Tokyo d’avril à juin 2023.

L’exposition prévue à Tokyo innove en retraçant le parcours des artistes japonais contemporains qui ont voyagé en France de la fin de l’ère Meiji à l’époque Taisho et ont fait route jusqu’en Bretagne.

Foujita est curieusement classé dans la liste des artistes japonais, bien qu’il ait été naturalisé français en 1955.

Entrée de l’exposition, The National Western Art Museum, Tokyo

Brittany, a peninsula jutting into the Atlantic at the far northwest corner of France, is intimately associated with artists. Clinging to a rich Celtic heritage and culture, independent Brittany long resisted its powerful neighbors, Britain and France, and kept its own language even after incorporation into France in the 16th century. The region retained much of its original character: abundant natural features ranging from cliff-fringed coastlines and rocky heaths to deep inland forests; ancient megalithic sites and numerous medieval and early-modern religious relics; a population devoted to the Catholic faith and practicing a simple lifestyle full of local color. An “unknown country” within France, with a distinctive topography and deep-rooted culture, it continued from the 19th century onward to attract artists seeking fresh subjects.

À la Coupole, avec Anne Watanabe pour une interview

This exhibition focuses on the period from the late 19th to the early 20th centuries when Brittany hosted a great number of painters and printmakers. In presenting works produced in the region, with their characteristic motifs of nature, historic sites, customs, and local history, we ask the questions: what did these artists seek and what did they find? The exhibition also breaks new ground by tracing the progress of contemporary Japanese artists who traveled to France from the late Meiji to the Taisho periods and made their way to Brittany.

À la Coupole, Sylvie Buisson et Anne Watanabe, la célèbre actrice japonaise, devant les souvenirs des Années Folles de Foujita en janvier 2023, pour la NHK, télévision japonaise.