Two artists who continued to hold their brushes on different continents during the tumultuous 20th century - Tsuguharu Foujita and Yasuo Kuniyoshi. A special exhibition tracing their footsteps, "Tsuguharu Foujita x Yasuo Kuniyoshi: Two Parallel Careers - Reunion in 2025 Years" will be held at the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art from Saturday, June 6th to Sunday, August 14th, 8.

Fujita, known as a representative figure of the Ecole de Paris, and Kuniyoshi, who pioneered the arts as an immigrant to America, lived parallel lives while meeting in Paris in 1925 and 28, and in New York in 1930 and 49.

The exhibition, held on the 1925th anniversary of the two men's meeting in Paris in 100, introduces their lives, which were torn between war and feelings of homeland despite their fame in each country, from their temporary return to their homeland and their work at the start of the war between Japan and the United States, to Foujita's permanent residence in France after the war and Kuniyoshi's death. The exhibition presents their lives in chronological order, comparing their works in nine chapters.

The exhibition will bring together masterpieces from major collections in Japan, including Fujita's masterpieces "Five Nudes" and "Before the Ball," and Kuniyoshi's "Island of Happiness" and "Someone Tear My Poster." Another highlight is that Fujita's two masterpieces from the 1920s, "Five Nudes" and "Before the Ball," will be exhibited at the same venue for the first time after undergoing full-scale restoration.

The outbreak of war between Japan and the United States on December 1941, 12 divided the fates of these two close Japanese artists living abroad. After returning to Japan, Fujita produced war documentary paintings and acquired French citizenship after the war. Kuniyoshi, despite being labeled an enemy alien, continued to fight under the flag of democracy using art as a weapon, and the two never met again.

The lives of two men at the mercy of war. A century later, they resonate together in a single space.

◆Tsuguharu Foujita x Yasuo Kuniyoshi: Two Parallel Careers - A Reunion After 100 Years
[Period] April 2025th (Sat) - May 6th (Sun), 14
[Venue] Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art (1-1-1 Wakinohama Kaigandori, Chuo-ku, Kobe, inside HAT Kobe)
[Opening hours] 10:00-18:00 (entrance until 17:30)
[Closed] Mondays (open on July 7st and August 21th, closed the following days)
[Admission fee] 2,000 yen for adults (1,800 yen in advance), 1,200 yen for university students (1,000 yen in advance), free for high school students and younger, 70 yen for those 1,000 years and older
[Advance ticket sales period] On sale now until June 6th