EXHIBITION OVERVIEW

The Tokyo Fuji Art Museum will be organizing an exhibition on Japanese artist Higashiyama Kaii (1908-99). From The Nagano Prefectural Shinano Art Museum Higashiyama Kaii Gallery—A Tokyo Fuji Art Museum 35th Anniversary Commemorative Exhibition is being held to celebrate the 110th anniversary of the artist’s birth in 2018, which coincides with the year that our museum also happens to mark the 35th year of its founding. After surviving the lean, hard wartime and early postwar years, Higashiyama was drawn to the allure of landscapes. He adopted a uniquely evocative painting style, the scenes he captured concise yet elegant, expressive and even lyrical. While addressing such subjects as the four seasons of Japan, the natural settings from around the world and ordinary streetscapes, he transformed them into ethereal landscapes transcending the mere material to something profoundly metaphysical. This exhibition was made possible through the generous support of The Nagano Prefectural Shinano Art Museum’s collection of Higashiyama’s works, introducing some 80 pieces that include both final and mockup paintings of Nordic landscapes, the four seasons of Kyoto and white stallions in deep forests. Also on display are the artist’s preliminary sketches and various studies. From The Nagano Prefectural Shinano Art Museum Higashiyama Kaii Gallery—A Tokyo Fuji Art Museum 35th Anniversary Commemorative Exhibition is a stunning, memorable retrospective of a painter who rose to national prominence whose legacy continues to inform the world of Japanese art to this day.