Bernard Buffet Retrospective

Bunkamura Museum of Art

This event has ended.

The figurative painter Bernard Buffet (1928–1999) is one of the most famous French artists from the latter half of the 20th century. His paintings feature dark, sharp, almost piercing lines to depict his subjects in a restrained manner. Drawing from the anxiety and emptiness felt after World War II, his art style took the world by storm and encapsulated both Sartre’s existentialism and Camus’s view of the absurd. Buffet drew criticism as a famous artist while abstract painting grew to be the leading style, though he went on to pursue his own path. He has received newfound appreciation in recent years, such as with a large-scale retrospective exhibition held at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris. As the world today is struck with a strong sense of unease over the ongoing pandemic and is impacted by many natural disasters, this exhibition examines the worldview featured in the works of a painter who lived through an age that bears similarities to our own. Focusing on the idea of an epoch or age, look back at some 80 works arranged in chronological order—primarily oil paintings held by the Bernard Buffet Museum in Shizuoka, boasting the world’s largest collection of his works.