Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art

This guide to the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art in Sapporo follows the strange thread connecting this Hokkaido institution to Jules Pascin, a Bulgarian-born painter who died in a Paris studio in nineteen thirty as the loose-living heart of the School of Paris. You'll hear about his circle, including Soutine, Kikoine and Modigliani, and how their Montparnasse scene became the art capital of the world between the wars. It follows the museum's decision, when it opened in nineteen seventy-seven, to build its European wing around Pascin's work, before turning to the Hokkaido-born painters who hang under the same roof.