Maeta Kanji

"Man", (Takasuga), 1924

Maeta Kanji ( Japanese 前 田 寛 治 ; also Maeda Kanji ; born October 1, 1896 , Hōjō (today: Hokuei), Tottori Prefecture ; died April 16, 1930 ) was a Japanese painter in the western style, " Yōga ".

Live and act

Maeta was born in Tottori Prefecture, finished high school in Kurayoshi, and then went to Tōkyō. He first studied at the Aoibashi Art School and then moved in 1915 to the Department of Western Art at the Tōkyō bijutsu gakkō, the forerunner of today's Tokyo University of the Arts . There was his teacher Fujishima Takeji . - Maeta was an admirer of the Protestant Christian and columnist Uchimura Kanzo , whose views he adopted. With friends from his home prefecture, he organized the "Dune Society" ( 砂丘 社 , Sakyū-sha ) and wrote poems and other articles for the association's magazine.

After Maeta had finished his training, he returned home, but submitted pictures to the artist society Nika-kai ( 二 科 会 ) and the exhibition of the Imperial Academy of Arts, called Teiten ( 帝 展 ). In 1922 he was honored in the peace memorial exhibition in Tōkyō ( 東京 府 平和 記念 博 覧 会 , Tōkyō-fu heiwa kinen hakurankai ). From 1922 to 1925 he stayed in France, where the free atmosphere of the École de Paris attracted him and he turned to Fauvism . At the same time he was interested in the classicism of an Ingres and realism of a Courbet . - At the time, he had a close relationship with Fukumoto Kazuo , a friend from his homeland. This influenced him with his socialist ideas.

In 1925, the year in which he returned to Japan, he was honored with his work "Portrait des Fräulein JC" ( JC 嬢 の 像 ) from Paris at the 6th Teiten exhibition. With Satomi Katsuzō ( 里 見 勝 蔵 , 1896–1981) and Saeki Yūzō he organized the “1930 Society” and founded the “Maeta Institute for Representation”, which specialized in representative drawings and painting. In 1929 he became a juror for the 10th Teiten exhibition and also won the Academy Award for his painting “The Sea” ( 海 , Umi , 1930). Soon after, he fell ill and died.

Other works by Maeta are “Woman in Black” ( 黒 衣 婦人 像 , Kokui fujin zō ; 1925), “Nude” ( 裸体 , Ratai ; 1928) and “Family of the master carpenter” ( 棟梁 の 家族 , Tōryō no kazoku ; 1928).

Maeta Kanji Prize Exhibition

Since 1988, the city of Kurayoshi and the Kurayoshi Museum ( 倉 吉 博物館 , Kurayoshi hakubutsukan ) have awarded the Maeta Kanji Prize to Western-style painters and honored the winner in an exhibition ( 前 田 寛 治 大 賞 展 , Maeta Kanji taishō-ten ). The prize is awarded every three to four years.

photos

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  "Two Workers"
  1923

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  "Miss JC", 1925

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  Reclining nude, 1928

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  "Sea", 1930

1. ↑ This picture was shown at the exhibition Japanese Painting in Western Style 1985 in the Museum for East Asian Art in Cologne.

literature

• Suzuki, Toshihiko (Ed.): Maeda Kanji. In: Nihon daihyakka zensho (Denshibukku-han), Shogakukan, 1996.
• Japan Foundation (Ed.): Japanese Painting in the Western Style, 19th and 20th Centuries. Exhibition catalog, Cologne, 1985.

Web links

Kurayoshi Museum

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Maeta is the family name, Kanji the first name.