Born in Tokyo in 1886, multifaceted artist Tsuguharu Fujita was a prominent figure of the Ecole de Paris (The School of Paris) thanks to his unique fusion of Japanese and European aesthetic. Fujita finished his study in fine art in Japan and moved to Paris in 1913. He encountered the flourishing international art scene of the Montparnasse neighbourhood, where he befriended Picasso, Modigliani, Matisse and other significant figures of modern art. When World War I broke out in 1914, Fujita chose to stay in Europe and later married his second wife, who was instrumental to his first success in Paris. The artist’s debut solo exhibition in Paris was a triumph with all works being sold on the first day, among the buyers was Picasso, who reportedly purchased as many works as he could carry home.

The artist reached the height of his fame in the Roaring Twenties. With his flamboyant fashion style, he was highly recognizable in events and parties of the scene. Unlike some of the Japanese artists in Paris at the time who intentionally leaned towards European aesthetic, Fujita was seen keeping his heritage yet incorporating perspective of European art history. The artist earned recognition by his series of self-portraits, cats and female nudes with a subtle palette and thin, precise outlines. Inspired from Japanese ukiyo-e, the translucent milky skin of the nudes has amazed the western audiences. To this day, the exact ingredients of his unique, captivating milky white paint remain a mystery.

When Fujita temporarily returned to Japan in 1929, he met Jiro Yoshihara, founder of The Gutai Art Association. Fujita remarked on Yoshihara’s work, stating that it lacked recognition value as it showed too much influences of other artists. Yoshihara took his advice seriously and vowed to create art in a way that no one had ever done before. The idea later became the motto of GUTAI and the driving force behind the group's creation of unprecedented art.

During World War II, Fujita returned to Japan and became the nation’s leading war artist, which brought him criticisms after the war. The artist later returned to France and gained French citizenship in 1955. After his conversion to Catholicism with his fifth and last wife, Fujita started working under the name Léonard Foujita and dedicated most of his creation to religious paintings. Fujita died of cancer at the age of 81 in Zürich and was interred in the chapel that he constructed, the final project of his remarkable artistic life.