Two French national museums, the Musée d’Orsay and the Musée de l’Orangerie, and the Ishibashi Foundation are jointly organizing the “Tokyo-Paris Masterpieces from the Bridgestone Museum of Art in Tokyo, Ishibashi Foundation Collection” at the Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, from 5th April to 21st August 2017.
The Ishibashi Foundation collection of 2,600 works is one of the world’s finest collections of impressionist and contemporary art. The 76 paintings exhibited in Paris, rarely seen before in Europe, include works by Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, Picasso and Pollock, as well as Japanese abstract artist Kazuo Shiraga.
Paolo Ferrari, CEO and President Bridgestone EMEA says: “Bridgestone is proud and delighted to be associated with the exhibition of the Ishibashi Foundation collection in Paris. Europe and Japan have grown ever-closer together in the last decades, bringing great mutual benefits. This fine exhibition illustrates the roots of our shared culture and the power of art to bring people together.”
The Ishibashi Foundation was created in Tokyo in 1956 by Shojiro Ishibashi, founder of the Bridgestone Tire Co. Ltd. (now Bridgestone Corporation). Ishibashi was passionate about art, particularly impressionist European work, which he started collecting in the 1930’s. Over the years, three generations of the Ishibashi family assembled one of the finest collections of contemporary and modern art by Western and Japanese artists. In 1952 Ishibashi opened the Bridgestone Museum of Art in the centre of Tokyo to house his collection and make it available to the public. The Bridgestone Museum of Art, Ishibashi Foundation is now closed for rebuilt. Museum reopening is tentatively scheduled for Autumn, 2019.
