NOGUCHI, YATARO (1899-1976)

"Harbour Scene" (c.1950)
pencil & watercolour
26 x 20cm
signed lower left
*private collection, Sydney
 
Noguchi was an award-winning Western-style Japanese Modernist. He is famous for the manner as Japanese Fauvism with brilliant colors and thin touches. He begun exhibiting at the Nika-Kai Art Exhibition from 1922, and became a member of the association in 1930. He studied abroad in Paris at the Grande Chaumière Institute from 1929-33, where he absorbed the influences of Matisse and others, and exhibited at the Salon d'Automne & Salon des Angespandans. After returning to Japan, he became a member of the Dokuritsu Fine Arts Society. During World War II, he evacuated to Taguchi Village, Minamisaku County, Nagano Prefecture. His house in Yoyogi was destroyed in the war and approximately 500 of his artworks were destroyed. In 1947, he exhibited in the 1st Art Group Exhibition, and in 1949 the 1st Indepenent Art Exhibition. In 1953 he became a Professor at the Nihon University College of Art. He exhibited 4 watercolours in the Contemporary Japanese Watercolor Painting Exhibition in New York in 1957, and held a two-person exhibition with Seiji Chokai at the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura in 1959. In 1961 he returned to Paris for the first time in 30 years and held a large solo exhibition, and produced several paintings. He regularly exhibited in the Japan International Art Exhibition from the 1960s. In 1972, he received the Dark Blue Ribbon Medal, and the 23rd Minister of Education Award for Art Encouragement. In 1975, he was awarded the Third Order of the Sacred Treasure and became a member of the Japan Art Academy. After his death, several retrospective exhibitions have been held at the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura and the Nagasaki Prefectural Museum of Art. The Noguchi Yataro Art Memorial Museum Of Art in Nagasaki was established in his honour. Although he was born in Tokyo, he spent a period of his boyhood in Nagasaki and visited Nagasaki many times.