Exhibition of drawings by Akira Kurosawa at the Petit Palais
So you’ve heard of him, you might even have sat through part of Seven Samurai without sleeping, but did you know that Akira Kurosawa’s preparatory drawings for his films were much more than simple sketches? This exhibition shows nearly a hundred of the filmmaker’s various drawings made in crayon, ink, water colours or pastel…
Ran – 1985 Dame Kaede se jetant sur Jiro dans le donjon du 3ème château © Kurosawa Production Inc. Licensed exclusively by HoriPro Inc.
The idea of the exhibition is to show the public an unknown side of the artist, whose talent used colour and drawing to express a rare emotional quality. You’ll rediscover Akira Kurosawa, universally hailed as one of the most important filmmakers of the late 20th Century.
Ran – 1985 Dame Kaede © Kurosawa Production Inc. Licensed exclusively by HoriPro Inc.
Even if you are not familiar with Kurosawa’s films, you will be able to appreciate these drawings. Combining both eastern and western influences, the expressionist force behind them reflect Kurosawa’s personality, his roots in Japanese culture and his love for painters such as Van Gogh, Cézanne, Chagall and Rouault, as well as his appreciation of writers like Shakespeare, Dostoïevski and Tolstoï.
Rêves – 1989 Le vieux meunier (Le village des moulins à eau) (détail) © Kurosawa Production Inc. Licensed exclusively by HoriPro Inc.
Here’s all the essential information for the exhibition of drawings by Akira Kurosawa at the Petit Palais in Paris
When: from 16th October 2008 – 11th January 2009
Where: Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, Avenue Winston Churchill – 75008 Paris. Métro: Champs Elysées-Clemenceau (lines 1 & 13). Bus n°s 42,72, 73, 80, 93
Opening hours: 10am – 6pm. Closed Mondays and public holidays
Admission: free for the permanent collection but temporary exhibitions such as the Kurosawa have paid entrance (although the museum site doesn’t say how much!)
More information (in French): here in the official PDF presentation
Wikipedia page for Kurosawa: here
