A century ago, in the spring, Aoki Shigeru died alone at a hospital in Fukuoka. He was only twenty-eight years and eight months old. His life was short, he was poor, but he lived with such unrestrained passion that the legend he became remains fresh and vivid today. While studying at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, he made a name for himself as a painter with his vivid portrayals of scenes from Japanese mythology. In the context of Meiji romanticism, Aoki’s A Gift of the Sea, shown in 1904, when he was only twenty-two, had a powerful impact. This work was the very quintessence of the imagination and creativity found in Aoki’s work. He has left us a body of work on mythological or religious themes that includes Paradise Under the Sea. His romanticism is the wellspring of ideas whose fascination transcends historical moment and place. Each of these works is saturated with Aoki’s loves and hates, his suffering and his passion.

For this retrospective exhibition in commemoration of the hundredth anniversary of his death, we have assembled seventy of his oil paintings, 170 watercolors and sketches, and sixty letters and other documents, in an exhibition of unprecedented scope that reveals the many faces of this artist’s work.

* The text provided by BRIDGESTONE MUSEUM OF ART, Ishibashi Foundation.

Period: Sunday, July 17 - Sunday, September 4, 2011
Venue: Bridgestone Museum of Art