With most Tokyo galleries closed during the New Year's break, it can be difficult to find an interesting contemporary art show in the city.

"Springtime" (1887) oil on canvas, by Heinrich Vogeler

Don't despair, though. Now is the perfect time to get out and "discover" a relatively unknown bygone painter, and the Tokyo Station Gallery has just the ticket now at their oh-so-convenient brick-walled space: Heinrich Vogeler.

Heinrich Vogeler? I had never heard of the guy either. He isn't listed in the Thames and Hudson artists' reference manual; neither is there any mention of him in the usually thorough Oxford Dictionary of Twentieth Century Art.

A little research revealed that the record at auction for a Vogeler painting is a paltry $18,000 (2.03 million yen), while the highest price one of his works on paper ever fetched is only $1,000 (113,000 yen). Even the exhibition's press release describes Vogeler as a "forgotten painter."

Luckily, it seems that one of the gallery's curators has a thing for Vogeler, and so has put together a retrospective designed to shine a little light on the talented artist.

Some 220 paintings, works on paper, crafts and ceramics make up the Heinrich Vogeler exhibition, a surprisingly engaging show which proves that fame is not the only measure of artistic greatness.

Vogeler (1872-1942) was born in Bremen and worked during his early adulthood in the north German artists' colony of Worpswede. He painted, at least initially, in the Art Nouveau style.

Like many of his contemporaries, Vogeler had an interest in Japan inspired by the new and exciting aesthetic of ukiyo-e woodblock prints brought into Europe in the late 19th century.

The interest was reciprocated when Vogeler's painting "White Birches" was adopted as the symbol of the respected Japanese art magazine "Shirakaba."

The outbreak of war in Europe and the human suffering it wrought had a great effect on Vogeler, who allied himself with the Bolsheviks and moved to Moscow to work for the good of the proletarian revolution.

Vogeler abruptly changed his style from sweet and decorative to hard and revolutionary Socialist Realism. There are several examples here of pictures from this period, and needless to say the portraits of Lenin and scenes of liberated workers in fields, factories and workshops hang in sharp contrast to the dreamy pastorals he was painting just a few years earlier.

"Summer Evening" (1905) oil on canvas, by Heinrich Vogeler

One of the best of the Vogeler pictures presented here is "Summer Evening" (1905), painted in oil on canvas in 1905. At this time, Vogeler was keeping a farmhouse in Barkenhoff where he received other painters and intellectuals.

Especially in the summer, the house became a center for relaxed creative cross-pollination, and it is from one of these nights that the inspiration for this picture came.

The eight figures are well-dressed, but hardly aristocratic, and arranged in a formalist style. On the right side of the frame are a trio of musicians, while a Freud-like character hovers over three young guests on the left. The main subject, a dreamily pensive woman, stands dead center at the gate to the farmhouse.

The lost-in-thought look recurs among Vogeler's subjects: Many are pictured gazing toward the heavens to further emphasize that they are contemplating something truly big.

Another repeated theme is detachment: The figures themselves sometimes seem to float away from the backgrounds. But then, there are so many different styles here -- some paintings where the brush is light and whimsical, others where the thick oils have been layered onto the canvas.

There are many pleasant surprises. A large picture, "Moscow and the Kremlin," painted just two years before Vogeler's death, is a crisp view of a winter night scene. Vogeler seems to have dabbed a little life into each and every one of the many windows in the big apartment block that stands in the foreground.

The show is filled out by a collection of glassware and architectural drawings of single-family residences with floor plans sure to make any 2DK denizen green with envy.

In all, this is a fine exhibition with a wide range of work. It is sure to satisfy just about any gallery and museumgoer, or at least tide you over until the galleries reopen in mid-January.