"I believe felines were given to men to learn from them about women."
The most Japanese painter of the École de Paris, Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita was one of the central figures of the Roaring Twenties, much appreciated for his exoticism and originality. Much like Picasso and Modigliani, the artist makes women and cats his main subjects. Though his calligraphic line recalls the Japanese tradition of diaphanous silhouettes on almost transparent backgrounds, the artist adheres to a very individual synthesis of Asian tradition and Western figuration. His trademark white background allows him to draw fine lines and render skin as porcelain with subtle glazes and thin paint. Foujita’s unclassifiable style survived the great modernist currents of the early twentieth century; fauvism, cubism, surrealism.