Sylvie BUISSON
LÉONARD FOUJITA (1886-1968), HIS LIFE, HIS WORK
Return to Experts
August 1930, Foujita leaving the villa in Square Montsouris with his wife Youki, the poet Robert Desnos, and his nephew Tomonobu Ashihara for the trip they organized together to Burgundy. Private archive photograph preserved in the archives of Youki and Henry Espinouze, his estate.
The expert and art historian Sylvie Buisson has presided over the French Union of Art Experts in Paris since 2018.
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exhibition curator, condition reports of works at Chenue before their departure to Japan, 2025.[/caption]
For 40 years, she has dedicated herself to supporting the reputation of the most Japanese of French modern artists, Léonard-Tsuguharu Foujita, through publications, exhibition curations, and public lectures worldwide. She shares her knowledge on this subject with students, historians, and journalists. And with her colleagues, of course, to manage and block the influx of forgeries or fake works.
Her personal attraction to Japan dates back to her studies in Art History and Techniques at Paris-University between 1963 and 1969; she first visited Shizuoka, Japan, in 1976, where she met the painter Keisuke Serizawa, a living national treasure, who expressed his admiration for Foujita's work and suggested she write a biography and publish his works. At that time, Foujita was largely unknown to the general public. No book was dedicated to him. Publishing a work on Foujita during the lifetime of his last wife was an impossible challenge. With her husband Dominique Buisson, she took on this challenge.
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2018, interview at the Maillol Museum for NHK TV, Paris[/caption]
In Tokyo and the provinces, between 1976 and 1987, they traveled and studied the meaning of traditional aesthetics – secular and sacred architecture, societal rites, decorative arts, the evolution of painting and sculpture from their origins to the 20th century – and, of course, their connection with the West. The practice of Shodô, calligraphy, fundamental elements of the Japanese language, as well as numerous visits to Foujita's family, his nephews and nieces, guided her increasingly in the footsteps of the great modern artist of Japan. She ventured into uncharted territory to gather the maximum amount of information and documents that would allow her to publish, with Dominique Buisson, her husband, a first biography in French and, having observed many original works, to begin their classification in a first volume of the Catalogue Raisonné of the Work.
The publisher Joseph Foret and his wife, Georges Prade and his wife Jeanne-Paule, Béatrice Taittinger and René Lalou's circle in Reims, Paul and Gilbert Pétridès and their gallery staff in Paris, Monique Lucas, daughter of André Romanet, Jeanne Bernard's circle, a saleswoman at the Chéron gallery in Paris, the Ashihara, Fujita, and Tokita families, the fiancée Tomi's nephews, as well as the Japanese galleries Tamenaga, Nichido-Hasegawa, and many other personalities worldwide who knew Foujita, particularly in Spain, Argentina, England, and the United States, opened their doors, their archives, and testified so that Foujita could definitively emerge from the shadows since his disappearance in 1968.
In 1987, she co-authored with Dominique Buisson, an art education specialist and Japan expert, her husband, the 1st Volume of the General Catalogue Raisonné of Foujita's Work, which reproduces 1180 works (paintings, drawings, and engravings).
The publication of Volume 1 of the General Catalogue Raisonné of Foujita's Work, authorized by court decision in 1987, set a precedent in this field; it was followed by Volumes 2 and 3, published in 2001 and 2007.
Today, a 4th Volume is currently being proofread.
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Exhibition curator, lecture at the Pushkin Museum[/caption]
In 1989, Sylvie Buisson joined the UFE and continued the inventory of works published in the 2nd and 3rd Volumes of the Catalogue, which appeared in 2001 and 2007. (The additional volume, currently in progress, will allow the publication of another 800 works and previously unpublished archival documents.)
More than 7000 authentic works (including different states of engravings and illustrations for publication) are currently included in the expert's archives from private and public collections located worldwide.
It should be noted that the resurgence of forgeries, fueled by a very dynamic art market in Asia, could tarnish Foujita's aura if the constant vigilance of the expert and her team did not detect and block them.
Since 2015, Sylvie Buisson has been assisted in her role as expert and archivist of L.-T. Foujita's Work by her son, Casimir Buisson, a painting restorer [graduated in 2001 from the Art Institute - Palazzo Spinelli in Florence (Italy)]. She is transmitting her expertise process and archives to him.
To obtain an initial opinion on the authenticity of a work, it is recommended to attach to a detailed email high-definition digital photographs (front, back, and sides), provenance elements, a history if possible, and the dimensions. The response is prompt.
The artist Fujita Tsuguharu 藤田 嗣治 Léonard Foujita (Tokyo 1886 - Zurich 1968)
His output is considerable, over 6000 original works, numerous engravings and illustrations, creations on metal, wood, and fabric. In him, the arts of China, Japan, Gothic art, Italian and French Renaissance, Flemish and Spanish painting, notably, merge...
His erudition, served by an extraordinary thirst for modernity in Japan at his time, allowed him to easily juggle between the cultures of his country of origin, Japan, and his adopted country, France, between East and West, lands that fascinated him, to skillfully invent his own language and his Work.
In a way, renovating Japonism in the West, a Second Japonism can be attributed to him, which would marry the image of Paris with Japan.
His modernity is undeniable.
He builds a bridge between cultures, continents, remains true to himself, presents himself as a citizen of the world, an artist always and in all latitudes, displaying himself as a singular, original, and charismatic being.
"Only the power of art transcends barriers of language and belief; it crosses borders and works for peace," he would write. A global declaration of love that remains just as relevant today.
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According to the French art market quotation company, Artprice,
The works of Tsuguharu-Léonard Foujita are mainly sold on the French, Japanese, American, Chinese (Hong Kong and Taiwan) markets. The most sought-after artistic category by collectors is painting (67% versus 28% for drawings and watercolors).In 2023, the sales record for Tsuguharu-Léonard Foujita (1886-1968) was awarded to the oil on canvas titled "La fête d’anniversaire" (The Birthday Party), created in 1949, sold for over 6.9 million euros / 8 million euros with fees, during an auction organized in London by Bonhams in October 2018.
Examples of prices by category for works by Tsuguharu-Léonard Foujita according to Artprice:
|
Category |
Average estimate* |
High estimate** |
|
Painting |
€162,143 |
€6,959,063 |
|
Drawing & Watercolor |
€16,832 |
€950,523 |
|
Print & Multiple |
€2,751 |
*Average estimate in 2023. **Highest price achieved per category.
The solo or group exhibitions in which Tsuguharu-Léonard participated throughout his life partly explain his rating and the price of his works on the international art market.
The recognition of Tsuguharu-Léonard Foujita by museum institutions attests to the quality and importance of his work.
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In December 2009, signing of the Catalogue Raisonné of Foujita's Work (volumes 1 and 2) at Christie's, Paris.[/caption]
Bibliography
Reference work / "General Catalogue Raisonné of Foujita's Work" :
• Sylvie and Dominique Buisson, "Foujita, sa vie, son œuvre" - Volume 1 of the General Catalogue Raisonné, ACR Éditions, Paris 1987. • Sylvie Buisson, "Tsuguharu-Léonard Foujita" - Volume 2 of the General Catalogue Raisonné, ACR Éditions, Paris 2001. • Sylvie Buisson, "Foujita Inédits" - Volume 3 of the General Catalogue Raisonné, À l'encre rouge-Éditions Fondation Nichido-Archives artistiques, Paris 2007. • Sylvie Buisson (annotations) "Georges Grosjean recounts his friendship with Foujita" (account by Georges Grosjean, a senior reporter in Asia, close friend of Foujita, with extensive notes by Sylvie Buisson) Éditions Paradox, Paris 2018 forthcoming: • Sylvie Buisson and Casimir Buisson, "Tsuguharu-Léonard Foujita" - Volume 4 of the General Catalogue Raisonné, ACRB, Paris, with the participation of the Nichido Foundation, Japan.Catalogues of major monographic exhibitions in France, Japan, and Spain / Sylvie Buisson, curator
-Sylvie Buisson and collective, " Foujita, Commemoration of the Centenary of His Birth", Art Life, Tokyo 1986 -Sylvie Buisson and collective, "Foujita, Youki and Desnos, a Surrealist Love", Éditions des Cendres/Musée du Montparnasse, 2001. -Sylvie Buisson, Foujita, "The Japanese Master of Montparnasse", Éditions du Musée du Montparnasse/Mairie de Dinard, 2004. -Sylvie Buisson and collective, "Foujita, Between East and West", Banca Caja Valencia and Museo diocesiano de Barcelone, 2005 -Sylvie Buisson and collective, "Léonard Foujita", Curators Inc. Art & Architecture, Japan 2008-2009 -Sylvie Buisson, "Foujita and his Friends of Montparnasse", Alternatives/Gallimard, Éditions du Conseil général du Loiret, Orléans/Château de Chamerolles, 2010. -Sylvie Buisson and collective, "Léonard Foujita and Paris 1913-1931 [The Centenary of his Arrival in Paris-Paris Welcomes and Glorifies Foujita]", Brain Trust Inc., Japan 2013 -Sylvie Buisson and collective, "Léonard Foujita and Jules Pascin - Artists of the Great Montparnasse Adventure", Pushkin Museum, Moscow 2015 -Sylvie Buisson and collective, "Léonard Foujita and his Models", Curators Inc. Art & Architecture, Japan 2016-2017 -Sylvie Buisson and collective, "Foujita: Painting in the Roaring Twenties", Culturespaces, Fonds Mercator, 2018. - Sylvie Buisson, Catalogue of the traveling exhibition in 5 museums in Japan, from February 2024 to November 2026, titled "The 7 Passions of Foujita", produced by BRAIN-TRUST INC LTD. Curated by: Sylvie BUISSON, with the participation of Casimir BUISSON and Midori YANAI, art historian, former curator of the Meguro Museum, Tokyo.Contact
Sylvie BUISSON
Paris
+33 (0)6 76 35 79 46
sylv.buisson@orange.fr
www.foujita.org
[UFE number : 346]
