Visual Arts

Phillips’ upcoming selling exhibition, Foujita/Sanyu: Muses & Models, is set to transform the Hong Kong gallery in the St. George’s Building. Presenting more than 25 works focusing on the 1920s and 1930s of Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita (1886-1968) and Sanyu (1895-1966), the exhibition pays homage to the artists’ exploration of the subject of the female nude, which made them pioneers of their generation.

The exhibition is one of the highlights of the Le French May festival and opens to public. It also coincides with Phillips’ Spring Auction of 20th Century & Contemporary Art in Hong Kong, which will offer four works by Foujita and Sanyu. It was in Paris that Foujita and Sanyu’s styles evolved in dialogue with their Western contemporaries. They bridged Asian and Western traditions, merging traditional techniques derived from Japanese printing and Chinese calligraphy with the modern, liberal sensuality they encountered by living and working in Paris during 1920s.