Fujioka moved to the United States in 1910. Following studies at the Portland School of Art, he moved to New York in 1916 to study at the Art Students League under John Sloan, Frank Dumont, and others. From 1919, with the support of Kyo Kumazaki, he studied at the French School of Modern Art in Paris for two years before returning to New York in 1921. He exhibited works at the Society of Independent Artists and the Salons of America from 1924 to 1927, and he participated in the exhibition of Japanese Art, sponsored by New York Shimpo in 1927. The Nippon Club held a solo exhibition of his work in 1924, and in 1927, he had solo exhibitions at the Stanford University Art Museum and Lincoln Park in San Francisco.

He returned to Japan in 1934 and, in the same year, held solo exhibitions at the Asahi Shimbun Gallery, Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi, and Seijusha Gallery in Ginza, featuring works from his American and French periods.

Reference: Special Exhibition of Works by Noboru Foujioka, (Exhibition catalog, The Nippon Club, 1924); Tokyo Asahi Shinbunsha, Oil Painting: Noboru Fujioka’s Works in Europe,“(Exhibition catalog), Tokyo Asahi Shinbunsha Gallery (1934); Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi, Exhibition Catalogue of Noboru Fujioka’s Works in Europe, (exhibition catalog), Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi, Tokyo (1934); Seijusha, Exhibition Catalogue of Recent Western Paintings by Noboru Fujioka, (exhibition catalog), Seijusha Gallery (1935); New York Shimpo; Nichibei Jiho; Shinsekai.

The subject of this entry was featured in one of our digital exhibits, “Japanese Artists During the Prewar Period in New York City- Artistic Trace from the 1910s to the 1940s –”.