This is an exhibition of the works of Chōkai Seiji (1902-1972), the representative Western-style painter of Hiratsuka city, including the recently acquired Seto no yama (the mountain of Seto, 1941) which will be on public view for the first time in half a century. This exhibition also present the works of Kishida Ryūsei and Yorozu Tetsugorō by whom Chōkai had been influenced.
Chōkai started his career as a painter while he was still attending Kansai University. His work was accepted for the annual public competition held by Shunyōkai in 1924. He then moved to Europe to study Western painting more professionally in 1930, where he became interested in the works of masters such as Goya and Rembrandt. When he returned to Japan in 1933, Chōkai was nominated to be an official member of Shunyōkai and started exploring his own style, which was based on both the creative thinking learned in Europe along with a strong expressiveness originating from the natural climate of Japan. In 1943 he withdrew from Shunyōkai and joined Dokuritsu Bijutsu Kyōkai where he continued his work for the rest of his life.
In the beginning of his career Chōkai practiced mainly in massive landscapes of nature with influence from Fauvism. He traveled around not only in Japan but also in China, Egypt, Iran, India, Peru and Mexico. He expanded the variety of the motifs he used in his art by enlisting motifs used in still life paintings, portraits, architecture, and historic artifacts. Based on his profound knowledge and insight of the both Western and Eastern ancient art, Chōkai sought a symbolic realism of expression in depicting simplified forms of motifs. He pursued his own unique expression with thickly painted texture (matiere), which was not borrowed from the Western art but, rather, on his own synthesis of art traditions.
Ever since our opening, this museum has been honoring the memory of Chōkai and collecting more than 160 of his works. This combination of several drawings and studies make it possible to follow the history of his works throughout his career without interruption. Now Chōkai’s pre-war work, Seto no yama, is added to the collection, which has not been seen in public for 48 years since his last self-selected exhibition in 1971. To commemorate this occasion, this exhibition introduces the whole history of his creations along with the works of his fellow painters.