Kimura

"I'm a painter of light. And I believe myself to be a successor to Monet. Monet was convinced that he was painting his inner world, but, in my opinion, he was above all sensitive to visual light. For me, I want above all to paint this world of inner light that gives rise to forms other than the form of objects. It's an Impressionism of the soul.
I was born Japanese and yet I believe I am a French painter, who came from Japan to France to be able to achieve this accomplishment of Impressionism."Chuta Kimura

Before 1953, Kimura had exhibited very little, and then only in Japan (he was mobilised in 1937 and 1945), but when he arrived in Paris, he was "lucky" enough to find not only a patron who enabled him to rent a studio, but also gallery owners and critics who quickly became his friends and supported his work, despite the uncertainty of this commitment. All the more so because in the artistic field, the time was ripe for rejection, or even denial, of the past, and Kimura, going against the tide, asserted himself as "a successor to Monet" and wanted to "transform the heritage of the great French pictorial tradition" by achieving "the fulfilment of Impressionism", the symbol of academicism reviled by the avant-gardes of the time.

This book is a tribute to this courageous choice by the artist and his early supporters.

Catalogue of the Kimura exhibition presented by Galerie Le Minotaure, Paris (9 September to 21 October 2023).