France hosts exhibit of work by Japanese artists with disabilities

From The Mainichi Daily News. Pictured is artwork by Sanae Sasaki.

While Kiyoshi Yamashita -- the wandering artist depicted in the famous television series "Hadaka no Taisho Horoki" (Travelogue of the Naked General) -- is widely known as a gifted Japanese artist with a disability, he is far from being the only one.

Struck by the talent of disabled artists in Japan today, Martine Lusardy, director of Halle Saint-Pierre in Paris has organized an exhibit of paintings and sculptures by 64 disabled Japanese artists in Paris, running from March to September 2010.

Works by artists with intellectual disabilities, learning disabilities and psychiatric disorders from 20 prefectures will be featured at "Art Brut Japonais." Many of the artists work on their art at welfare institutions and other facilities, and some even paint in closed wards at mental hospitals. Approximately 1,000 pieces will be sent to Paris for the exhibit.

Art brut, or "raw art," was coined by French artist Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985) to refer to art that has been spared the influence of preexisting culture or art education. While there is a gallery dedicated to such art in Lausanne, Switzerland, it's rare for works created by disabled people to gain recognition as art in their own right in Japan, even though painting and other creative endeavors are common activities at facilities for people with disabilities. It is only recently that their works have attained commercial status through corporate collaboration.

An exhibition by 12 disabled Japanese artists held in 2008 in Lausanne by the Shiga Prefectural Social Welfare Organization's Borderless Art Museum NO-MA received such wide acclaim that it was extended from the initial period of six months to over a year. That was where Lusardy from Halle Saint-Pierre encountered works by Japanese artists with disabilities, and set out to hold his own exhibition in Paris.

So exactly how highly are these works of art valued? One artist's work sold for 7,000 yen at a fair in Japan, but went for 1.2 million yen in Paris. While this may be an extreme case, it is not uncommon for works that sell for 20,000 yen in Japan to be priced at 800,000 yen in Paris.

The Paris exhibit's planning committee on the Japanese end is headed by Tokyo University professor Tetsuo Tsuji, a specialist in social welfare policy, and includes a slew of experts from the fields of welfare and medicine, as well as private corporations, universities and film production companies. In accordance with Halle Saint-Pierre's request, contracts have been signed between the museum and the artists individually, or with legal guardians in the case of artists who lack the capacity to make contractual decisions.