When Shimizu Takashi was a painter

When he grew up Shimizu Takashi wanted to be a painter, but fate would have it that he went down in history as Japan's leading modern sculptor. The contacts he had in France during his years of study changed his life. Among all, the meeting with Bourdelle was fundamental because he revealed to him the wonders of art in three dimensions which Shimizu Takashi embraced with great passion. He continued to paint with some success, becoming, for example, the first Japanese artist to exhibit paintings and sculptures at the Salon d'Automne. The exhibition at the Artizon Museum focuses on seventeen new acquisitions concluded by the Ishibashi Foundation, highlighting Shimizu's paintings created during his stay in Europe. The foundation boasts a collection of over 3.000 works including some important works by the French Impressionists of the second half of the 19th century, modern paintings of the 20th century by European and Japanese artists, and post-war abstract paintings, as well as some masterpieces of ancient Asian and Greco-Roman art.