Artist

  • Claude Monet

  • Pablo Ruiz Picasso

  • Henri Matisse

  • Jamie Kokot

    Salvador Dalí

  • Ikeda Masuo

  • Jean Criton

  • Giuseppe Ansovino Cappelli

  • Antonella Catini

  • Xuelian Wu

  • Akiko Hata

Hora's collection includes the only print made by Monet in his lifetime. It represents an attempt at his distinctive artistic style and is extremely precious.

Claude Monet

Oscar-Claude Monet, a French painter, was a pivotal figure in the development of Impressionism and is often regarded as a key precursor to Modernism. His dedication to capturing nature as he perceived it set him apart and defined his long career. Monet's commitment to the philosophy of Impressionism is evident in his extensive body of work, particularly in his plein air (outdoor) landscape paintings.

The term "Impressionism" itself is derived from the title of Monet's painting "Impression, soleil levant" ("Impression, Sunrise"), which was exhibited in 1874 during the "exhibition of rejects." This exhibition was organized by Monet and his fellow artists as an alternative to the traditional Salon, challenging the established norms of the art world at the time. Monet's innovative approach and relentless pursuit of capturing natural light and atmosphere have left an enduring legacy in the world of art.

Pablo Ruiz Picasso

Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) and the anti-war painting Guernica (1937), a dramatic portrayal of the bombing of Guernica by German and Italian air forces during the Spanish Civil War.

Picasso demonstrated extraordinary artistic talent in his early years, painting in a naturalistic manner through his childhood and adolescence. During the first decade of the 20th century, his style changed as he experimented with different theories, techniques, and ideas. After 1906, the Fauvist work of the older artist Henri Matisse motivated Picasso to explore more radical styles, beginning a fruitful rivalry between the two artists, who subsequently were often paired by critics as the leaders of modern art.

Henri Matisse

Henri Émile Benoît Matisse ；31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954 was a French visual artist, known for both his use of color and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter. Matisse is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso, as one of the artists who best helped to define the revolutionary developments in the visual arts throughout the opening decades of the twentieth century, responsible for significant developments in painting and sculpture.

The intense colorism of the works he painted between 1900 and 1905 brought him notoriety as one of the Fauves (French for "wild beasts"). Many of his finest works were created in the decade or so after 1906, when he developed a rigorous style that emphasized flattened forms and decorative patterns. In 1917, he relocated to a suburb of Nice on the French Riviera, and the more relaxed style of his work during the 1920s gained him critical acclaim as an upholder of the classical tradition in French painting. After 1930, he adopted a bolder simplification of form. When ill health in his final years prevented him from painting, he created an important body of work in the medium of cut paper collage.

His mastery of the expressive language of color and drawing, displayed in a body of work spanning over a half-century, won him recognition as a leading figure in modern art.

Salvador Dalí

Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol gcYC (11 May 1904 – 23 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí (/ˈdɑːli, dɑːˈliː/ DAH-lee, dah-LEE, Catalan: [səlβəˈðo ðəˈli], Spanish: [salβaˈðoɾ ðaˈli]), was a Spanish surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarre images in his work.

Born in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain, Dalí received his formal education in fine arts in Madrid. Influenced by Impressionism and the Renaissance masters from a young age, he became increasingly attracted to Cubism and avant-garde movements. He moved closer to Surrealism in the late 1920s and joined the Surrealist group in 1929, soon becoming one of its leading exponents. His best-known work, "The Persistence of Memory," was completed in August 1931, and is one of the most famous Surrealist paintings. Dalí lived in France throughout the Spanish Civil War (1936 to 1939) before leaving for the United States in 1940, where he achieved commercial success. He returned to Spain in 1948, where he announced his return to the Catholic faith and developed his "nuclear mysticism" style, based on his interest in classicism, mysticism, and recent scientific developments.

Dalí's artistic repertoire included painting, sculpture, film, graphic arts, animation, fashion, and photography, at times in collaboration with other artists. He also wrote fiction, poetry, autobiography, essays, and criticism. Major themes in his work include dreams, the subconscious, sexuality, religion, science, and his closest personal relationships. To the dismay of those who held his work in high regard, and to the irritation of his critics, his eccentric and ostentatious public behavior often drew more attention than his artwork. His public support for the Francoist regime, his commercial activities, and the quality and authenticity of some of his late works have also been controversial. His life and work were an important influence on other Surrealists, pop art, popular culture, and contemporary artists such as Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst.

There are two major museums devoted to Salvador Dalí's work: the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres, Spain, and the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, U.S.

Ikeda Masuo 池田滿壽夫

Ikeda Masuo (February 23, 1934 - March 8, 1997)

An artist active in a wide range of fields beyond the traditional boundaries of art, including painting, printmaking, illustration, sculpture, ceramics, writing, and film directing.

In 1951, he won the Atelier Award for his oil painting "Landscape with a Bridge" at the first All-Japan Student Oil Painting Competition.

In 1957, he was selected for the Tokyo International Print Biennale. In 1960, he was awarded the Minister of Education Award at the same exhibition, bringing him into the limelight.

In 1965, he held the first solo exhibition by a Japanese artist at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which attracted much attention.

In 1966, at the age of 32, he won the International Grand Prize in the Print Category at the Venice Biennale, the second most prestigious award for a printmaker after Munakata Shiko.

In 1977, he won the Akutagawa Prize for "Aegean Sea."

Jean Criton (1930-2022)

IJean Criton was a representative figure of the narrative figurative art movement in France. He began his professional career in 1947 after graduating from the Charpentier Academy and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Starting in 1955, he exhibited his works in Parisian galleries through the art dealer Paul Antonini. In 1961, Criton discovered the works of Francis Bacon, prompting a temporary return to figurative painting and human body depiction. The same year, he was invited by the renowned French art critic Pierre Restany to participate in the second Paris Biennale, where he won the Grand Prize at the Paris Biennale two years later.

Throughout his life, Jean Criton experienced various creative periods, including Fauvism, Cubism, and Informalism. His works are powerful, varied, and creative, using materials such as acrylic, charcoal, ink, water, and even rubber. His works are part of collections in several institutions, including the French National Contemporary Art Foundation and the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris.

Giuseppe Ansovino Cappelli

Giuseppe Ansovino Cappelli was born in Macerata, Italy, and currently resides in Rome. He is an artist, architect, and professor at the University of Rome. As a painter and architect, he primarily dedicates himself to teaching and research, a complex endeavor that began in the early 1980s. His work merges different disciplines, aspects of teaching, and theory, while also producing a vast amount of works, paintings, and drawings using various unique techniques. The central theme of his work is the relationship between the ever-present rational element and the element of chance. His work progresses in phases, involving in-depth exploration, division, and experimentation, yet consistently maintaining coherence and traceability according to life's times and events.

Since the late 1970s, Cappelli has experienced various periods of Italian art movements, integrating his thoughts and research into his creations. He has published works such as "Problems of Form" and "Before Rome·After Rome." In Cappelli's works, natural elements and totemic images are presented in a minimalist manner. This continuous flow between abstract research and a return to figuration forms the foundation of all his creations. He employs various painting techniques, from collage and pencil sketches to rhythmic and continuous carvings on wood, demonstrating a strong vitality. The elements of memory and reflections on symbols interweave, with "rigorous fantasy" becoming the soul of his artistic creation.

Antonella Catini

Antonella Catini was born in Pisa, Italy, and is a painter currently living and working in Rome. Catini graduated with a degree in architecture, and in all her artistic expressions, one can see the successful blend of her research into form and spatial visual perception with the study of abstract and informal painting. Her works convey a strong sense of chance and asymmetry, abandoning rational approaches in favor of conscious engagement in creative actions. She is drawn to the abstract dimension, constantly experiencing and exploring its diverse expressions. Antonella Catini uses painting as an ideal tool to express inner experiences. Through the use of colors and painting materials, she creates forms and symbols. The overlapping and breaking processes leave traces and imprints on the materials, suggesting psychological paths and layers, becoming metaphors for the contemporary world. In many of her works, the dimensions of space are often thin, with colors becoming carriers of intense sensory experiences.

Catini's recent works explore themes such as urban landscapes, the perception of movement, and changes in the self. She has conducted numerous experiments in digital art and sculpture. Since 2000, she has been almost fully dedicated to artistic creation. In recent years, she has held numerous solo exhibitions in important galleries and institutions in Italy and abroad, with several catalogs published both domestically and internationally. In 2014, she held a solo exhibition at the Ara Pacis Museum in Rome and published the "Cantieri" catalog, curated by Philippe Daverio, in collaboration with the prestigious Italian publisher Skira.

Xuelian Wu

Xuelian Wu graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts and is a well-known contemporary young artist in China. She is an artist who focuses on simple forms and materials. She prefers to use simple painting language, creating works mainly characterized by simple contours and postures. Whether depicting people or what we consider lifeless objects, these simple images always fascinate her. She believes that these images contain a certain depth, something hidden within. Through these images, she sees herself, or perhaps unconsciously, her thoughts have already dived into them.

In Xuelian's artistic world, different painting materials serve as bridges between her and these images. Whether it is ink, silver foil, or other pigments, each material has its unique characteristics and aesthetics. These characteristics themselves are not fixed; different people using them in different ways and feelings convey completely different emotions. She uses these materials in her own way, enjoying the indescribable pleasure of finding subtle differences and changes within simple materials and forms. Her works are simple yet rich in content, with every stroke and color carefully considered, presenting a rustic and profound aesthetic. Xuelian's artistic exploration allows us to discover new perspectives and emotions in simple things, provoking deep thought and resonance.

Through her paintings, viewers can feel the rich connotations hidden in simple images and find their own reflections and thoughts in them. Xuelian uses simple forms and materials to build a bridge to the depths of the heart, allowing us to feel the resonance of the soul and the beauty of life while appreciating art.

Akiko Hata  秦亞希子

Akiko Hata, a renowned contemporary Japanese artist, graduated from Tama Art University. During her studies, she demonstrated a strong interest in Oriental ink art, making it the core focus of her artistic creations. Her experience at Tama Art University allowed her to engage with artistic trends that blend tradition and modernity, providing a solid foundation for her future work.

Hata's creations mainly focus on integrating traditional techniques of Oriental ink painting with modern materials. She delves into the profound essence of Oriental ink, constantly experimenting and innovating to merge the fluidity of ink with the diversity of modern materials. This exploration is not just a technical innovation but also a profound understanding and modern interpretation of classical Eastern cultural connotations.

In Hata's works, one can see her respect and love for classical Eastern culture. She believes that Eastern culture holds infinite wisdom and philosophical thought, and the essence of these traditional cultures can provide rich spiritual nourishment for modern society. Her works often carry strong philosophical colors, presenting a unique artistic style that is both classical and modern through the variations of ink and the intervention of new materials.

At the same time, Hata continuously attempts to collide her artistic concepts with cultural ideas in modern society. She has participated in many international art exhibitions and cultural exchange activities, engaging in dialogues and collaborations with artists worldwide. In these activities, she consistently adheres to her artistic beliefs and brings Oriental ink art to the international stage. Her works are well-received not only in Japan but also internationally, earning praise from numerous art critics.