The Bernard Buffet Museum in Shizuoka Prefecture will hold a special exhibition celebrating its 45th anniversary, "Painting and Imagination: Bernard Buffet and Iri and Shun Maruki," from March 17 to June 12. The museum's founder, Kiichiro Okano, first encountered Buffet's work in 1953, a time when the devastation of World War II was still evident. Buffet's unpretentious portrayals of those deeply scarred by the war marked the beginning of postwar French art history, and his works left a deep impression on Okano, a demobilized soldier. This exhibition focuses on the intersection between Buffet, whose paintings of war memories in France and Japan in the 1950s sparked a response that could be described as a social phenomenon, and Iri and Shun Maruki. It will be a place to experience and share the imagination inherent in painting. Iri and Toshi Maruki, The Atomic Bomb, Part 3: Water, 1950, Watercolor on paper (Maruki Gallery for The Atomic Bomb Art) (left panel)
Iri and Toshi Maruki began collaborating on The Atomic Bomb in 1950, inspired by their experience of seeing Hiroshima after the atomic bombing. Toshi, a Western-style painter, produced figures with solid sketches, while Iri overwhelmed them with layers of ink. The resulting work, born out of a fierce clash between the two artists, has a power that defies art historical frameworks such as Japanese and Western, or avant-garde and traditional, and continues to resonate with us today. These three artists' works use their imagination to depict the pain, despair, and loss of humanity brought about by war. Their works evoked both sympathy and antipathy when they were first exhibited, and continue to allow future generations to relive the horrors of war. Perhaps this is because their paintings have the power to stimulate the imagination and move the hearts of those who see them.

Bernard Buffet, The Passion of Christ: Caning, 1951, oil on canvas
Also, on March 18th there will be a special talk between Yukinobu Okamura, curator at the Maruki Gallery for Hiroshima Panels, who has worked hard to introduce Maruki's work both domestically and internationally, and Tsutomu Mizusawa, director of the Museum of Modern Art, Kanagawa Prefecture, who has curated numerous exhibitions related to modern Japanese art during and after the war. They will discuss postwar art both in Japan and abroad, with a focus on the works of the Maruki couple.