Furuzawa Iwami

Furuzawa Iwami ( Japanese 古 沢 岩 美 ; born February 5, 1912 in Saga Prefecture ; died April 15, 2000 ) was a Japanese painter of the Yōga direction during the Shōwa period .

life and work

Furuzawa Iwami went to Tokyo in 1928 and attended the Hongō Institute for Painting ( 本 郷 洋 画 学校 Hongō yōga gakkō ). In 1938 he founded the artists' association Sōki ( 創 紀 美術 協会 Sōki bijutsu kyōkai ), which disbanded the following year. He then participated in the establishment of the "Association for Art and Culture" ( 美術 文化 協会 Bijutsu bunka kyōkai ). In 1939 he was awarded in the illustration competition for the 50th anniversary of the Asahi newspaper publisher .

In 1940 he was sent to Beijing as a special rapporteur to produce illustrations. In 1943 he was called up. In 1944 he worked on the occasion of the Army Memorial Day together with Okamoto Taro and others as a judge at the picture exhibition "Men and officers of the army in the Wuhan region ". In 1945 he was taken prisoner of war in the Wuhan region.

In 1946 Furuzawa was able to return to Kagoshima. In 1947 he moved to Tokyo and settled in Maeno in the Itabashi district and joined the "Club of Avant-garde Artists of Japan" ( 日本 ア ヴ ァ ン ギ ャ ル ド 美術 家 ク ラ ブ Nihon avangyarudo bijutsuka kurabu ). In the spring of 1970 he made a trip through Europe (Greece, Italy). In 1973 he spent a time in Paris, where he designed lithographs for Visions Nouvelles. In 1975 the “Furuzawa Iwami Art Museum” ( 古 沢 岩 美 美術館 Furuzawa Iwami bijutsukan ) was opened in Yamanashi Prefecture . In 1977 Furuzawa stayed in Paris again.

In 1979 Furuzawa traveled as head of the 3rd China Friendship Delegation of Japanese and Chinese artists a. a. to Beijing, Taiyuan and Xian . In 1981 he visited the Soviet Union at the invitation of the Ministry of Culture. He traveled to many places and made sketches. In 1986 the Ministry of Culture was invited to the Soviet Union.

Furuzawa's extensive work has gone through as many changes as his life. On the one hand, he was a judge at a war painting exhibition in 1944, on the other hand, his trips to China and the Soviet Union after the Pacific War show his efforts to achieve reconciliation. His work is characterized by fantastic, surrealistic and time-critical elements, but images of simply beautiful women also occupy a large space in his work.

Publications (selection)

• “A Thousand and One Nights” - editions illustrated by Furuzawa ( 千 夜 一夜 物語 , Sen'ya ichya monogatari; 1967/1979)
• Furuzawa Iwami: "The vagabonding of the beautiful" ( 美 の 放浪 , Bi no hōrō; 1979)
• Furuzawa Iwami: "The naked body, Furuzawa Iwami's collection of nude sketches" ( に ょ た い - 古 沢 岩 美 裸 婦 デ ッ サ ン 集 , Nyotai - Furuzawa Iwami rafu dessan-shū; 1980)
• Furuzwa Iwami: "The bloody clashes of the hungry devils in hell" ( 修羅 餓鬼 , Shura gaki; 1960 to 1993)
• Furuzawa Iwami: "Field Post " ( 軍事 郵 便 , Gunji yūbin; 1996)

Remarks

1. ↑ The museum is located in Fujikawaguchiko in Yamanashi Prefecture , near Mount Fuji .
2. ↑ The hunger devil is an ancient theme in Japanese art.

literature

• Tazawa, Yutaka: Furuzawa Iwami . In: Biographical Dictionary of Japanese Art . Kodansha International, 1981, ISBN 0-87011-488-3 .
• Laurance P. Roberts: Iwami . In: A Dictionary of Japanese Artists . Weatherhill, 1976, ISBN 0-8348-0113-2 .

Web links (images)

At the National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo (selection):

• I, apple-me, 1950
• Hungry Devil, 1952
• Lovers at the Ariran Pass, 1954

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Furuzawa is the family name, Iwami is the first name.