Casimir BUISSON
LÉONARD FOUJITA (1886-1968), HIS LIFE, HIS WORK

[detail] 1927 - iconic photograph by Dora Kallmus (1881-1963) - Tsuguharu-Léonard Foujita (1886-1968), his round tortoiseshell glasses, his famous fringe, his cat Boutchi © private archives.

The Artist

Tsuguharu-Léonard Foujita, Avant-Garde Painter

He is the modern Japanese painter who established himself within the School of Paris during the great period of the 1920s and 1930s, when Paris was considered the undisputed capital of the arts worldwide. Alongside Picasso, Matisse, Modigliani, Vlaminck, Derain, Soutine, Chagall, Kisling, Marie Laurencin... and many other French and foreign artists whose aim was to revisit the very image and spirit of Painting by modernizing it, Foujita established himself as the most French of Japanese painters during this blessed period. Each of the artists of the School of Paris [a term coined by art critic André Warnod in 1923 in a famous manifesto article in the newspaper Comoedia] used, in complete freedom, their own technical means, their own vision of the world, their own culture, feeling carried by the overall emulation of this multicultural Parisian terrain. Foujita therefore contributed with his friends to "dusting off" figurative modes of representation not only by refining them but above all by creating a fusion still unique of its kind within the avant-gardes of the 20th century, between the culture of the East and that of the West, between the cultures of origin (Western, Asian, and primitive) and the primarily Russian and French avant-gardes. Foujita therefore dared to build a bridge between Japan, his native country, and France, his adopted country. Erudite in both his own native culture and in Western arts and techniques, Foujita endeavored to favor none while appropriating them, installing them together within each of his representations: drawings, paintings, engravings, and many other objects of his making. Never has the term hybridization been more justly employed than with Foujita.

The body of his works is dispersed throughout the world

His oeuvre comprises no fewer than 6,000 major works. The painter was highly prolific in France, North and South America, and Japan. His expertise requires extensive work and a considerable body of archives. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The expert

Casimir Buisson has shared for 15 years the work of archiving, expertise, and cataloging of Foujita's works with Sylvie Buisson, who has progressively transmitted to him the extent of her knowledge.

He has also traveled and curated several museum exhibitions of original works by Foujita in Japan and France. His studies as an art restorer (Painting) between 1996 and 2000 at the Palazzo Spinelli in Florence led him to work within the collections of the museums of that city, notably the Uffizi, under the direction of state restorers. Italian art and the great masters who distinguished themselves there, from whom Foujita drew inspiration to the point of borrowing his baptismal first name from Leonardo da Vinci, are familiar to him. This background is highly valuable for scientific research concerning Foujita. Foujita's technique is indeed similar to that of the great masters of the Renaissance (glazing, varnish, composition of the material) His training as a painting technician, particularly of the pictorial layer, enables Casimir Buisson to establish extremely precise condition reports of works, to assess their conservation, and to prescribe restorations, appropriate framing, and necessary conservation conditions. Since 2010, Casimir Buisson has accompanied Sylvie Buisson, herself an expert on the artist at the Union Française des Experts since 1989, in this demanding work of identifying, numbering, classifying works, and preparing editions of the General Catalogue Raisonné of Foujita's Work. He drafts certificates of authenticity with her and since 2025, he co-signs them, actively participating in the curatorship of several exhibitions devoted to the Work of Foujita.

Bibliography

In preparation: General Catalogue Raisonné of Foujita's Work, Volume 4, published by ACRB and Nichido Foundation, Kasama Museum. (currently being corrected)

Contact

Casimir BUISSON
Paris +33 (0) 6 59 63 13 28 casimir.buisson@yahoo.fr http://www.foujita.org

[UFE number : 463]

Casimir BUISSON LÉONARD FOUJITA (1886-1968), HIS LIFE, HIS WORK