Tikashi Fukushima (Sōma, January 19, 1920 - São Paulo, October 14, 2001) was a Japanese-Brazilian painter and printmaker. Considered one of the most important abstractionists in Brazil, Fukushima also produced several works in the field of figurativism throughout his career. The artist has received various positive reviews from numerous important art critics for both his abstractionist and figurative productions. Fukushima belongs to the pre-war immigrant generation, composed of common immigrants who, after several changes in their lives, awakened to the arts. His master was Tadashi Kaminagai, whom Fukushima saw as a mentor, but who had a different style of painting than the one he later developed. Tikashi's works have been presented in national and international exhibitions.
Fukushima participated in artistic groups, such as Seibi-kai and Grupo Guanabara, having contact with numerous painters, including many of Japanese origin. The artist was honored with multiple titles and awards, and many of his works were acquired by important collectors in Brazil and other countries. In addition, he was a member of the Arts Commission of the Brazil-Japan Fine Arts Foundation, president of the Arts Commission of the Brazilian Society of Japanese Culture, and president of the Japanese-Brazilian Art Museum. He also received the decoration called the Order of the Sacred Treasure, in 1997.
Biography
Early years In his youth, Fukushima worked on a farm and in a warehouse. He finished high school and moved to Yokohama, near Tokyo, where he was a draftsman in an airplane factory for two years. Based on reports from his uncle who had already been to Brazil, he decided to change countries on February 24, 1940, aboard the ship Brasil Maru. Thus, he disembarked in the port of Santos and went to the countryside of the state of São Paulo, first to Pompeia and then to Lins, where he met Manabu Mabe. Mabe was four years younger than Tikashi, and both were determined to be painters; Mabe worked in the fields and painted when it rained.
Tikashi began working in a warehouse and in his free time devoted himself to drawing, making copies from photographs, and this activity provided him with an extra income. In 1945, living in São Paulo and working in a workshop, he was introduced by his boss to a well-known painter, Tadashi Kaminagai, who at that time needed an assistant in a frame workshop in Rio de Janeiro. Thus, Fukushima agreed to work for Kaminagai and in 1946 he moved to Santa Teresa, Rio de Janeiro.
Fukushima recognized Kaminagai as his master and spent hours listening to Kaminagai's stories of how he survived in Paris and exhibited his artwork in the salons of the 1930s. They would also go fishing together and take hours to reach a place they considered special, and this place enchanted Fukushima and inspired him to make his first painting in 1946, which was entitled Paisagem ("Landscape"). As he did not have money to afford the canvas used by other artists - he could not even afford two meals a day - he improvised a canvas using a par of cotton pants. He painted the picture in red, yellow, blue, white, and black, using his fingers, and the outlines were made with the only brush he had, having finished the work in the size of 10x14 inches (27x 35.5 cm). In 1996, he gave a statement to journalist Kuniko Kobayashi from the São Paulo-Shimbun newspaper, in which he said: "That moment was sublimation. And it consolidated my trajectory as an artist." Before the first painting made by the artist in 1946, Tikashi made drawings using graphite on paper. According to his son, Takashi, "When he arrived in Brazil, he had not yet carried out any artistic activities."
At this time, he had contact with several artists, such as Milton Dacosta, Inimá de Paula, Quirino Campofiorito, Van Rogger, and Di Cavalcanti, and began to attend the National School of Fine Arts in 1942, where he audited courses. Tikashi began to improve his techniques of "dessin", which consists of drawing the lines and outlines of objects and human figures, making several nude studies. In 1947, he participated in the 52nd National Fine Arts Salon, and the following year he participated again, when he won an honorable mention and received a commentary by the artist, teacher, and critic Tomás Santa Rosa Júnior (from the newspaper A Manhã, in the Arts and Language supplement), where he stated: "Excellent artists are the Japanese without a doubt. If they do not amaze with their genius, they never disappoint. This 'Paisagem' by Fukushima is a document of good taste, of the right composition, of good color, worked with appreciable artistic refinement." Fukushima continued participating in the National Salon of Fine Arts until 1964.
In 1949, he returned to São Paulo, married Ai Saito, and set up a framing workshop in Largo Guanabara, located in the Paraíso neighborhood. Later this place became the meeting point of the artists who, in 1950, formed the Guanabara Group (the Group of 15 had an offshoot that was called Grupo Guanabara, in which there was contact between artists and critics of the local environment). The Guanabara Group was formed around Tikashi Fukushima and reached 34 members, among them artists participating in Seibi-kai and the Group of 15. The Seibi-kai at the time was being restructured since the entity had been founded in 1935 but shut down in World War II, as were schools and associations where immigrants gathered.
The sale of Fukushima's works, like those of many other artists, helped to raise funds to ensure the continuity of the salons of the Seibi-kai, which were held annually. Fukushima's wife, Ai, was depicted in numerous drawings and paintings and accompanied the artist to meetings and trips. Since Tikashi did not speak Portuguese well and Ai did, she played an important role by being a channel of communication for her husband with Brazilians. According to his daughter, Elly, when Fukushima was not known as a painter, Ai was the one who supported the household by making clothes.
1950's Tikashi Fukushima's painting in the 1950s was "deeply marked by gesture, rhythm, and spirituality." In 1950, his son Takashi Fukushima was born and became a painter, engraver, draftsman, and set designer. Takashi's first contact with the arts was passed on by Tikashi in his home.
In the same year, Tikashi held a solo exhibition at Club Linense in São Paulo. He also participated in the Paulista Fine Arts Salon, together with other artists of Seibi-kai, helping organize the 1st Seibi Salon, where he won the silver medal. The artist knew the importance of holding this exhibition, as he realized that the complete restructuring of the movement and the appearance of new values would only be leveraged by holding an exhibition with awards for works by Japanese and Japanese-Brazilian artists. Seibi-kai's objective was to encourage the growth of the fine arts among the Japanese through monthly sessions of discussion, commentary and criticism, exchange with artists from Brazil and Japan, as well as holding exhibitions. Still in 1950, Fukishima also cooperated in organizing the first exhibition of the Guanabara group, at Galeria Domus. About this exhibition, the writer and art critic Ibiapaba Martins wrote in the Correio Paulistano that the "exhibition that cannot be missed by those who appreciate painting is the one at Galeria Domus."
In the days of the Guanabara Group, Tikashi and the other members would go out to make records of the churches, houses, factories, and streets of various neighborhoods in São Paulo. According to Arcangelo Ianelli:
However, Tikashi did not portray the city exactly as it was, he made modifications and even said, "I did not see much fun in portraying reality like in a photograph, I liked to deconstruct, simplify and dismantle the forms." According to his son, this way of painting without worrying about portraying the landscapes as they were, "were the steps towards saying goodbye to figurativism."
In 1951, Tikashi participated in the 1st São Paulo Art Biennial with work No. 81 "Paisagem". From that moment on, he felt his works became influential, and the Biennal became stimulating for him. In the same year, the second exhibition of the Guanabara group was held at the Institute of Architects of Brazil, in São Paulo and he received a bronze medal at the National Modern Art Salon. In 1952, he received the bronze medal at the 17th Paulista Salon of Fine Arts and the silver medal at the 1st Salon of the Seibi Group of Visual Artists, at the Sakura Club. Still in 1953, he participated in two National Salons, the Paulista and the Rio, and the third exhibition of the Guanabara Group was held at the Fukushima Gallery. However, in the 2nd São Paulo Art Biennial, only two Japanese-Brazilian artists were accepted, Tadashi Kaminagai and Manabu Mabe. Excluded, Fukushima realized that he should be more attentive to the changes of the concrete art movement and the new trends of the abstract.
In 1954, Tikashi was awarded a prize at the 19th Paulista Fine Arts Salon and exhibited in the Preto e Branco Salon. In the same year, his daughter Elly was born. The following year, his work was shown at the 3rd São Paulo Art Biennial and the 4th Paulista Modern Art Salon. In 1956, he participated in the 5th National Salon of Modern Art, in Rio de Janeiro, at the 6th Baiano Salon of Fine Arts, in Salvador, and at the 20th Paulista Salon of Fine Arts, where he received the silver medal. The following year, 1957, he participated in the 6th National Hall of Modern Art, in the Santista Hall of Fine Arts, where he received the silver medal, and in the 21st Paulista Hall of Fine Arts, where he received the 1st Mayor of São Paulo Award.
Later the same year, he had several solo exhibitions, all in the state of São Paulo; one in Araçatuba, one in Lins, one in Marília, and two others in the city of São Paulo. This exhibition was the artist's detachment from the figurative movement. In fact, this itinerant show was named by the artist "The Exhibition of Farewell to Figurativism," which earned him the equivalent of buying two cars at the time. However this money did not reach the artist in full, as the bank went bankrupt, and the artist stated that this "was the first, but not the last blow that I suffered from the Brazilian economy.
Ivo Zanini describes Fukushima's transition from figurativism to abstractionism as follows: "For several years (from 1946 to 1960) he moved through figurativism, when he founded in São Paulo, in the neighborhood of Paraíso, the Guanabara Group, which brought together artists already in full coexistence with the oscillations of modern art" and continues, exemplifying the themes of the paintings:
In the book Life and Art of the Japanese in Brazil ("Vida e Arte dos Japoneses no Brasil"), Cecília França Lourenço describes the use of geometry and abstractionism by Japanese-Brazilian artists as a response to a "vital and even cultural impulse, more easily identified with a gesture, stain, and formal research, and therefore an inexhaustible source revitalized through experience". Artists such as Mabe and Tikashi Fukushima were able to contribute decisively to the development of this abstract trend, In fact, abstractionism is where the most important and most productive phase of their work can be found.