When Seiji Tsutsumi assumed the position of President of Seibu Department Stores in 1961, Japan’s first exhibition dedicated to Paul Klee was held at the SSS Hall on the eighth floor of Seibu Department Store. The exhibition featured 20 oil paintings, 40 watercolors, 30 drawings, and 10 prints from the collection of the Kunstmuseum Bern.
At the time, the museum was hesitant to lend works for an exhibition organized not by a national institution such as the National Museum of Modern Art or the National Museum of Western Art, but by a newspaper company and a department store—a format unique to Japan. As a result, negotiations took nearly three years. Within Seibu itself, there was also pressure to stage exhibitions of well-known artists capable of attracting large audiences. Overcoming these various obstacles, the exhibition was finally realized.
In those days, leading Japanese-style painters were already exhibiting at established department stores such as Takashimaya and Mitsukoshi, while Seibu was still a newcomer to the art world. Seeking a distinctive direction, Seibu turned its attention to contemporary art, a field that few institutions in Japan had yet embraced. Klee was chosen not only because his poetic sensibility resonated with Tsutsumi’s own interests, but also because his delicate colors, dreamlike imagery, and lyrical visual language were thought likely to appeal to Japanese audiences.
To coincide with the exhibition, art critic Shuzo Takiguchi published the essay “Klee Is Here” in the Yomiuri Shimbun on October 31, 1961. By introducing Klee—who was still little known to the general public in Japan—the exhibition helped broaden awareness of his work and marked an important early moment in the development of the relationship between Seibu, the later Saison cultural sphere, and contemporary art.