Hokkaido Prefectural Migishi Kotaro Museum

This guide to the Hokkaido Prefectural Migishi Kotaro Museum in Sapporo centers on a nineteen thirty-two canvas of a tightrope-walking clown, part of a nearly three-year obsession the self-taught painter had with solitary clowns and marionettes. It follows Migishi from his untrained arrival in Tokyo's art world at seventeen through prizes, Cezanne and Van Gogh, and a restless shift toward abstraction and collage, before a gentler turn to butterflies and shells cut short by his early death in Nagoya. Look closely at the clown's face for what it refuses to show.