KAWASHIMA RIICHIRO

• KAWASHIMA RIICHIRO was an important Japanese painter of the first half of the twentieth century. Having studied in the United States and France, he encountered emerging movements including Fauvism and Cubism during his years in Paris, subsequently developing a distinctive style characterised by vivid colour and fluid brushwork. Together with Ryuzaburo Umehara, he founded the Western-style painting division of the Kokuga Sosaku Kyokai, contributing to the development of modern Japanese painting. His subjects ranged from landscapes and figures to flowers, while his later work showed an increasingly abstract tendency. His works are held in collections including the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, the Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts, Ashikaga Museum of Art and Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art.