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Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum

The first large-scale retrospective of the 20th century master Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978) in Japan in 10 years, "De Chirico Exhibition," is currently being held at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in Ueno, Tokyo. The exhibition will run until August 29, 2024.

Giorgio de Chirico gained fame for his "metaphysical paintings," which had a major influence on many artists, including surrealists such as Salvador Dali and René Magritte. Although he is known as an avant-garde painter, he was also devoted to classical expression techniques such as the Renaissance and Baroque, and his style changed significantly with the times.

A retrospective exhibition usually presents works from an artist's early period to his later years in chronological order. However, this exhibition brings together over 100 works, mainly oil paintings, from all over the world, grouped by themes and motifs that De Chirico dealt with, such as "Self-portraits and portraits," "Metaphysical paintings," and "Return to traditional painting," and provides an easy-to-understand introduction to how he continued to paint them and make changes to them .

As an introduction, Chapter 1 focuses on self-portraits and portraits. De Chirico began his career as an artist early on, and produced hundreds of self-portraits throughout his life. The various stylistic changes seen in his self-portraits reflect the results of the research he pursued in each of his eras.

De Chirico was born in Greece in 1888 to Italian parents, and after the death of his father, he moved to Munich, Germany with his mother and younger brother. He enrolled in art school there but dropped out, and moved to Milan, Italy in 1909. At the time, De Chirico was greatly influenced by the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche and the paintings of Arnold Böcklin, the abstract painter famous for Isle of the Dead. This exhibition features a rare portrait he painted during this period, that is, in the early stages before he established his style of metaphysical painting in Paris, called Portrait of his Brother (1910).

Self-Portrait (c1922) was a response by De Chirico to a time when a movement called "Return to Order" was sweeping through Western art, rediscovering the order of classical painting as a reaction to the destruction of expressive forms caused by the avant-garde movement. It is based on the rigid vision of Renaissance paintings such as Piero della Francesca and Raffaello Sanzio.

In addition, some of his self-portraits are in 17th-century costumes or dressed as bullfighters. Such theatrical attempts and theatrical tastes are one of the characteristics of De Chirico's work, and are closely related to the stage design of operas and other theater productions that he was involved in intermittently throughout his career. In the second half of the exhibition, costumes and design sketches created by De Chirico are also on display, so it will be interesting to view the exhibition while imagining the mutual influence they had on each other.

The second chapter is de Chirico's signature metaphysical paintings, divided into three themes: "Italian Piazza," "Metaphysical Interior," and "Mannequin." This is the highlight of the exhibition, bringing together many of De Chirico's masterpieces from his golden age of the 1910s, which are usually scattered around the world.

One day in 1910, De Chirico was struck by the sensation of seeing a familiar landscape for the first time in Piazza Santa Croce in Florence. This "revelation" prompted him to begin producing paintings that, while depicting concrete scenes such as squares and interiors, hint at the extraordinary, the mystical and mysterious, resembling dream images, through distorted perspective and the arrangement of motifs that would not normally exist.

After moving to Paris in 1911, his fantastical paintings immediately captivated critics and became part of the forefront of the Parisian art movement. Influenced by the philosophy of his beloved Nietzsche, De Chirico later named these works "metaphysical painting." His Silent Figure (Ariadne) (1913), exhibited in the "Piazza Italiana" corner, is truly a masterpiece of metaphysical painting.

"Piazza Italiana with a Pink Tower" (c1934), which depicts a square with no people in it, but with long shadows extending from outside the picture plane creating an ominous atmosphere, is a reproduction of "Piazza Italiana with a Red Tower" created in 1913. De Chirico was also active in reproducing metaphysical paintings he had painted in the past, and although this practice was sometimes criticized as "forgery," he himself seemed to take a positive view of it, saying, "There is no flaw in these reproductions, except that they are painted with more beautiful materials and more refined techniques" (from a letter to the wife of his teacher André Breton, who commissioned the reproduction).

With the outbreak of World War I, De Chirico moved from Paris to Ferrara as a soldier, and his paintings switched from the open views overlooking the square to the enclosed spaces of interiors. The motifs he painted were also inspired by the interiors of houses and shop windows in Ferrara, and objects that would have been around De Chirico in his daily life, such as biscuits, nautical charts, and rulers, began to appear without any context.

These are called "metaphysical interiors," and when we look at works from the 1910s, we see that the motifs depicted are unnaturally close to the viewer's eyes, with a myopic composition that excludes the presence of the outside world. In the 1960s, however, windows were installed, and the composition changed to create a sense of spaciousness. The windows also show the buildings of Piazza Italiana, a characteristic of the "New Metaphysical Paintings" that De Chirico began working on around 1968, which integrate motifs from his past works.

The "Mannequin" section features a series of works that replace the human figure, a motif that had been given a privileged status in classical Western painting, with the faceless mannequin, treating it as a kind of object on the same level as other motifs. As the appearance of the mannequin coincides with the outbreak of World War I, it is said that the mannequin represents the lack of rationality of human beings that causes war, or human powerlessness against violence.

Mannequin plays a variety of roles, including muse, prophet, philosopher, and bride. Although she is depicted in an inorganic manner in her early masterpieces , The Prophet (1914-15) and The Metaphysical Muses (1918), it is noteworthy that as time went on she underwent an interesting transformation, becoming more fleshy and humanized under the influence of classicism.

After returning from metaphysical painting to classical painting, De Chirico returned to Paris in 1925 and interacted with Surrealist painters, turning his attention back to metaphysical painting and to new themes such as "Gladiators" and "Furniture of the Valley." Chapter 3 focuses on these developments in the late 1920s.

The following fourth chapter is titled "Return to Traditional Painting – From 'Return to Order' to 'Neo-Baroque'" and introduces works that demonstrate the results of his devotion to classical painting, which has been mentioned many times in this article. From around 1920, he studied Renaissance works by Titian and Raphael, and then in the 1940s, Baroque works by Rubens and Velázquez, and although he was criticized by the Surrealists, he incorporated their expressions, themes, and techniques into his own work.

This chapter features two bathing paintings. One is Reclining Bather (Alcmene Rest) (1932), which is based on a bathing painting painted in the latter years of the Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who was known at the time as the leading researcher of Renaissance classicism.

The other, painted more than ten years later, is Bathers in a Landscape with a Red Cloth (1945), inspired by Baroque painting and its interpretations by Eugène Delacroix and Gustave Courbet. Although it has the same subject, the latter is more sensual overall and features dark, dense colors, showing a significant change in brushstrokes and style.

The final section, "New Metaphysical Painting," follows the development of De Chirico's work from the time he began working on metaphysical painting again in the ten years leading up to his death in 1978.

In his final years, De Chirico freely combined elements of his past works, such as squares, interiors, mannequins, mythological stories found in classical paintings, and even the sun and moon he had drawn in his illustrations, breaking new ground beyond mere rehash. These styles are called "neo-metaphysical paintings," and they are free of the melancholy and oppressive atmosphere found in the metaphysical paintings of the 1910s. All of them are light, cheerful, and somewhat playful, as if they have been deprived of the poison.

Unswayed by criticism from those around him, De Chirico viewed the avant-garde and the classics as not contradictory but capable of coexisting, and he repeatedly quoted and paid homage to his own work, presenting an original work worthy of being called the culmination of his artistic career.

Overview of the "De Chirico Exhibition"

venue	Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Dates	Saturday, April 27th, 2024 – Thursday, August 29th, 2024
Opening hours	9:30-17:30 (until 20:00 on Fridays) (entry until 30 minutes before closing)
Closed Days	Mondays, July 9th (Tue) – July 16th (Tue) *However, the office will be open on Monday, July 8th and Monday, August 12th (holiday).
Admission fee (tax included)	Adults: 2,200 yen, university and vocational school students: 1,300 yen, ages 65 and over: 1,500 yen *Reservations are required for specified dates and times on Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays, and from August 20th (Tuesday). *Free for high school students and younger. * Free for those who have a Physical Disability Certificate, Love Certificate, Rehabilitation Certificate, Mental Disability Health and Welfare Certificate, or Atomic Bomb Survivor Health Certificate, and their accompanying person (up to one person). *For further details, please check the official ticket page .
Organizer	Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, The Asahi Shimbun Company
inquiry	050-5541-8600 (Hello Dial)
Exhibition official website	https://dechirico.exhibit.jp/

*The contents of this article are current as of the time of coverage. Please check the official website for the latest information.

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Tokyo National Museum

To mark the 850th anniversary of the founding of the Jodo sect, a special exhibition titled “Honen and the Pure Land” has begun at the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno, Tokyo, where many treasures related to the founder of the sect, Honen, have been gathered from temples across the country. The exhibition will run until June 9, 2024.

*Some of the artworks on display will be changed during the exhibition. Please check the official exhibition website for details.

Originally developed in India and China, the belief in going to the Pure Land, a world free from suffering established in the west by Amida Buddha, is called “Jodo Buddhism” or “Jodo faith” in Japan and was adopted mainly by the Tendai sect’s Enryakuji Temple on Mount Hiei.

Honen (1133-1212), born at the end of the Heian period, a time when the age of the Latter Day of the Law was plagued by successive wars, natural disasters, and epidemics, studied Pure Land Buddhism on Mount Hiei, and in 1175 (Joan 5) founded the Jodo sect, which taught that by chanting “Namu Amida Butsu,” everyone can be equally saved by Amida Buddha and be reborn in the Pure Land.

“Namu Amida Butsu” means “I take refuge in Amida Tathagata.” The simple teaching of “Senshu Nembutsu,” which says that if you recite this six-character phrase (Nenbutsu) out loud, you will be able to attain paradise regardless of whether you have undergone rigorous training or good deeds, is so simple that it has gained the support of a wide range of people from aristocrats to uneducated commoners who are suffering from hardship, and it has grown into one of the major sects of Kamakura Buddhism. It has been passed down continuously to the present day.

This large-scale exhibition, held to commemorate the 850th anniversary of the founding of the Jodo sect in 2024, will survey the art and history of the Jodo sect, from its founding by Honen to its great development in the Edo period with the support of the Tokugawa Shogunate, through precious treasures, including national treasures and important cultural properties, held by Jodo sect temples and other institutions across the country .

The exhibition is divided into four chapters. Chapter 1, “Honen and His Times,” introduces the kind of person Honen was, his appearance, achievements, and ideas.

This exhibit features the Important Cultural Property “Senke Hongan Nembutsu Shu (Rosanji version),” which is the fundamental scripture of the Jodo sect that systematizes Honen’s philosophy and whose opening section even features calligraphy written by Honen himself; and the National Treasure “Honen Shonin Illustrated Biography,” a lengthy picture scroll spanning 48 volumes that can be said to be a culmination of the many biographies of Honen, containing not only the life of Honen from his birth to his death, but also the achievements of the nobles, samurai, and disciples who converted to the Jodo sect .

The statue of Saint Honen Seated, the principal image of the Okuin sanctuary of Taimadera Temple in Nara, is a rare example of a sculpture of Honen made in the Middle Ages, and is said to show the figure of a relatively young man. The statue is well-built, with a gentle expression that seems to be slightly smiling. This laid-back friendliness is in keeping with the popularity of the Jodo sect, and it is truly symbolic that it is displayed right at the entrance to this exhibition.

As the influence of the religious organization grew, some of them began to misinterpret the teachings and disrupt public morals, and the followers of Enryaku- ji Temple even filed a lawsuit to demand an end to Senshu Nembutsu. At that time, Honen had his disciples sign the Seven Prohibitions to encourage self-discipline. If you look closely, you will see that it also contains the signature of Shinran, the founder of Jodo Shinshu, when he was young.

The highlight of Chapter 2, “The World of Amida Buddha,” which conveys the growing faith that spread to the common people through the many sculptures of Amida Nyorai that were imbued with the wishes of many people, is the National Treasure “Amida and the Twenty-five Bodhisattvas Raising Welcome,” which is housed in Chion-in Temple in Kyoto, the head temple of the Jodo sect of Buddhism, just like the previously introduced “Illustrated Biography of Honen Shonin.”

This work is known by the nickname “Hayaraigo” (Early Arrival) , and is featured in textbooks as a masterpiece of Kamakura-period Buddhist painting, so many people should be familiar with it. A Raigo-zu painting is one that depicts Amida Buddha, accompanied by bodhisattvas, descending on a cloud to take a dying person who is reciting the Nembutsu to the Pure Land, and the name “Hayaraigo” comes from the magnificent depiction of flying clouds in a diagonal composition that emphasizes the sense of speed as the water falls in a straight line from the waterfall. This type of design likely reflects the wishes of those who prayed for a swift arrival.

A three-year period beginning in 2019 saw the painting undergo extensive dismantling and repair, which included replacing the backing paper (reinforcing paper that is affixed directly to the back of the original painting), making the painting brighter and enhancing the landscape that gave rise to the three-dimensional expression of scenery that is characteristic of this painting, such as the blue color of the water’s surface and the deeply carved mountain slopes.

The National Treasure “Tsuzureori Taima Mandala,” a treasured principal image of Taima-dera Temple in Nara, a sacred place of Pure Land Buddhism, is also a must-see. This work was originally composed of the third chapter, but due to space constraints, it was displayed in the second chapter area.

This stunning four-meter-wide painting of the Pure Land depicts the contents of the Sutra of Contemplation of Infinite Life, one of the three great scriptures of Pure Land Buddhism. It is thought that the painting was created in China during the Tang Dynasty or in Japan in the 8th century during the Nara period, but there are no other examples from the 8th century created with such advanced techniques. This will be the first time it will be exhibited outside of Nara Prefecture.

Unfortunately, most of the original colors have been lost, but this work attracted great faith during the Kamakura period by Honen’s disciple Shoku, and many copies were made. The same section also exhibits a copy of the Taima Mandala with clearly defined ink lines. Legend has it that the Tapestry Taima Mandala was woven in one night by an aristocratic girl named Chujohime with the help of Amida Buddha using lotus threads, and by viewing it together with the Taima Mandala, you may be able to experience a part of the mysticism that heightened the reverence of the people at the time.

Chapter 3, “Honen’s Disciples and the Lineage of Buddhism,” traces the activities of his disciples who, after his death, worked tirelessly throughout the country, including in Chinzei (Kyushu), Kamakura, and Kyoto, to spread his teachings.

There were many differences in approach among the disciples, such as the ideological construction of Senshu Nembutsu, the positioning of various practices within it, and ensuring the legitimacy of the religious organization. The exhibited work, “Matsudai Nembutsu Jushuin (Seigokurakuhon),” is said to be handwritten by Shoko, the founder of the Chinzei school, and was written to lament the situation in which dissent and different schools of thought were arising among his disciples, and to convey Honen’s true intentions to future generations. It makes you think about how difficult it is to protect and pass on a single teaching, even if it is as simple as Senshu Nembutsu.

Shogei, the founder of the Jodo sect, established the foundations of the Kanto Jodo sect in Hitachi Province, and his disciple Shoso founded Zojoji Temple in Edo. The sect’s status was firmly established when Tokugawa Ieyasu, who had been a devout believer in Jodo Buddhism since the Matsudaira clan, designated Zojoji Temple as the family temple in Edo and Chion-in Temple as the family temple in Kyoto. Chapter 4, “Jodo Buddhism in the Edo Period,” traces the Jodo sect’s dramatic rise in popularity during the Edo period under the patronage of the shogun family and various feudal lords, through the large-scale treasures that were brought to Jodo sect temples.

The three copies of the Tripitaka that can be viewed here – Song, Yuan, and Goryeo – are known as the “Three Great Treasures” and were confiscated by Ieyasu from temples in Yamato, Suo, and Omi provinces in exchange for their territories, and donated to Zojoji Temple.

The Tripitaka is a collection of over 5,000 volumes of Buddhist scriptures translated into Chinese, and in China, from the Northern Song Dynasty onwards, the Tripitaka was printed by woodblock printing as printing culture developed. Each published Tripitaka is a rare cultural asset, but it is said that there is no other example in the world of three copies held by a single temple in perfect condition. It is an extremely important book in cultural history that created the foundation for modern Buddhist studies.

Though not flashy, what caught my eye was the “Daily Nembutsu” (Nenbutsu) that is said to have been written by Ieyasu himself. It is believed that in his later years, Ieyasu diligently copied out the sutra “Namu Amida Butsu” every day, praying for the atonement of his sins. From a distance, the name of Amida Buddha is densely written in six rows and 41 columns, so densely that it could be mistaken for some kind of pattern, and it is a little chilling as it shows just how obsessive he was. However, upon closer inspection, like a game of spot the difference, there are only two places where the characters “Namu Amida Ieyasu” are written instead of “Namu Amida Butsu”. It is unclear why it was written in this way, but perhaps it was just playfulness, or perhaps there was some other deeper intention behind it.

The highlight of this exhibition can be said to be the 500 Arhats from Zojoji Temple , which Kano Kazunobu (1816-63), a painter from the late Edo period who is said to have been largely self-taught before entering the Kano school. The 500 Arhats are a masterpiece that he worked on over a period of about 10 years as the culmination of his career.

Rakan is an honorific title given to enlightened saints among the disciples of Shakyamuni, and they have been worshipped as beings with the role of saving people. The 500 Rakan are the 500 Rakan who participated in the First Assembly to compile Buddhist scriptures after Shakyamuni’s death, and from the mid-Edo period onwards, wood carvings and stone statues of the 500 Rakan began to be actively made all over Japan.

This work is an exceptional piece in terms of size, number, and impact, with 500 arhats literally painted in groups of five across a total of 100 scrolls. The highly distinctive scenes of the arhats’ training and life, the six realms of existence, disasters that befall people, and their salvation through arhat are depicted dramatically in brilliant colors, without being limited by the framework of Japanese painting, and using Western shading and perspective techniques. There is not a single part that is relaxed, even in the four corners, and I was overwhelmed by the amount of information and the passion that comes from it.

Of the total 100 paintings, 24 (12 in the first and second half of the exhibition) will be exhibited at the venue.

The last thing we encounter at the venue is the “Group Statues of Buddha in Nirvana” from Honenji Temple in Kagawa. This work depicts the scene of Shakyamuni’s nirvana in three dimensions using a group of statues, and is made up of a life-size statue of Shakyamuni in Nirvana, surrounded by a total of 82 figures, including lamenting arhats, the Eight Deities of Heavenly Dragons, and animals. Matsudaira Yorishige, the first lord of Takamatsu Domain, invited a Buddhist sculptor from Kyoto to build this work, and there is no other example of such a large group statue of Nirvana.

They are usually placed in the Sanbutsudo (Nirvana Hall) of Honenji Temple, but 26 of them are on display at this exhibition and are open to the public as photo spots.

After Tokyo, the exhibition will travel to the Kyoto National Museum and the Kyushu National Museum.

 

Overview of “Honen and the Pure Land”

*The contents of this article are current as of the time of coverage. Please check the official exhibition website for the latest information.

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National Museum of Western Art

The National Museum of Western Art in Ueno, Tokyo, has opened its first-ever contemporary art exhibition , “Has this become a room where future artists can sleep? ──The National Museum of Western Art’s 65th Anniversary Self-Question | Questions for Contemporary Artists.” The exhibition will run until May 12, 2024.

■ Participating Artists
Yuki Iiyama, Yoichi Umezu, Mai Endo, Tsuyoshi Ozawa, Nodoka Odawara, Natsuko Sakamoto, Hiroshi Sugito, Ryudai Takano, Kyo Takemura, Koki Tanaka, Toeko Tatsuno, Elena Tutacchikova, Rei Naito, Tadayoshi Nakabayashi, Yurie Nagashima, Purple Room (Yoichi Umezu + Hiromi Ando + Yoshiko Tsuzukihashi + Asako Hoshikawa + Saki Wakimoto), Rintaro Fuse, Hisao Matsuura, Futoshi Miyagi, Eboshi Yuasa, Kanji Yumisashi

This is an unprecedented attempt to exhibit contemporary art on a large scale at the National Museum of Western Art, which has mainly collected and exhibited “Western art” up to the first half of the 20th century. At a press conference held prior to the event, it was stated that the purpose was not to broaden the horizons of understanding the collection by displaying works from the museum alongside contemporary works, nor to attract the interest of those with a strong interest in contemporary art.

Looking back at its history, we can see that the museum was expected to serve as an inspiring place to give birth to and nurture the artists of the future. Just as the Matsukata Collection, which formed the basis of the museum, was founded by Matsukata Kojiro, who wanted to expose Japanese painters to authentic Western art and encourage their creative endeavors.

However, until now, no serious question has been asked as to whether the museum has actually been able to become such a space.

This exhibition confronts this fact, posing the question of how the museum and its collection are related to contemporary expression and what role they can play in the emergence and meaning of contemporary artworks to 21 artists across genres, and looks at their responses through their works. It also introduces about 70 masterpieces of Western art from the museum’s collection, including works by Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, and Maurice Denis, making it a highly interesting exhibition.

For this reason, many of the artists exhibiting in this project are also active in fields such as criticism, and the amount of text available in the venue is much larger than in typical contemporary art exhibitions, with some works even consisting of the text itself.

Artists have a variety of approaches to the question and concerns they face.

For example, in Chapter 1, “What kind of magnetic field of memory has this become?”, Nakabayashi Tadayoshi, Naito Rei, and Matsuura Toshio juxtapose their own works with those of their predecessors in the museum’s collection, such as Cezanne and Denis, who inspired Matsuura Toshio, and Odilon Redon and Rodolphe Bresdin, whose historical lineage is linked to Nakabayashi Tadayoshi’s own expression. After defining the museum as a magnetic field in which the memories of artists who lived/are living in various eras and regions coexist and intertwine with each other, the museum examines through the works what kind of magnetic field the museum’s collection forms.

In Chapter 2, “What do you think about Japan having a ‘National Museum of Western Art’?”, Odawara Nodoka ‘s new installation “Sculpture/Overcoming Modernity – National Museum of Western Art Edition” features Auguste Rodin’s sculpture “The Thinker,” which is also the symbol of the museum, removed from its pedestal and lying on its side on a bright red carpet, creating a very eye-catching piece.

The back side was completely visible, and many visitors sat down to take a good look at The Thinker, knowing that they would probably never have another opportunity to see it in this condition again. When The Thinker tipped over, the exquisite comfort of the cushion made it look as if he had fallen asleep, which was somewhat humorous.

Odawara was particularly interested in the historical “distortion” that the museum inevitably underwent as Japan modernized, and the fact that, unlike Western art museums, it is built on ground prone to earthquakes.

This new installation includes elements such as The Thinker, who collapsed in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, the Japanese painting Kishaku by Nishimitsu Mankichi, who drafted the Suiheisha Declaration during the Buraku Liberation Movement in 1922 and later converted to nationalism while in prison, an object modeling a five-story pagoda that collapses and is rebuilt every time there is an earthquake, and a seismic isolation platform developed exclusively by the museum. The installation presents a complex pose of the ideological issues of Japan that Odawara considers to be earthquakes and ideological conversion, overlapping “overturning” with “conversion.”

 

In chapter 4, “Can this be a place for diverse lives/sexualities?”, Takano Ryudai recreates the space of human “life” within the museum’s exhibition room, which aims to be a tasteless, neutral place.

What would it look like if masterpieces that are out of reach for individuals were displayed side by side in an average modern room? With this in mind, Takano exhibited paintings by Gustave Courbet, Vincent van Gogh, and Lucas Cranach the Elder, sculptures by Emile-Antoine Bourdelle, and his own photographs from the museum’s collection, in a space made entirely of IKEA furniture.

Takano considers IKEA products to be the pinnacle of modernist design, eliminating decorative elements that indicate authority and enabling people to live simple and rich lives. Anyone would immediately feel uncomfortable seeing Courbet or Bourdelle, who should be found in a prestigious art museum, placed in a setting that would never appear in our everyday spaces filled with affordable fashion. The muscular Hercules sculpture, which overly expresses a certain type of “man is strong,” would be admired for its imposing grandeur if it were in the front garden of the museum, but it is a complete mismatch in this smart room and appears to be at odds with modern sensibilities.

The way the works appear changes as the psychological distance becomes closer, but at the same time, I also realized the difficulty of appreciating and judging the value of the work “only” as it is, without being influenced by the exhibition space.

 

Although the museum is an institution that wants to preserve works in an immortal state and leave them for the future in perpetuity, works as materials are inevitably subject to slow change over time. Chapter 5, “Is this the place where works live?”, focuses on Claude Monet’s Water Lilies, Reflections of Willows, from the former Matsukata Collection, which was discovered in a heavily damaged state at the Louvre in 2016 and then moved to the museum’s collection.

In his work “Restored CM’s 1916 Water Lilies,” he imaginatively supplemented the missing parts of a gigantic oil painting measuring 199.3 cm in height and 424.4 cm in width, which had only undergone minimal conservation treatment, with a translucent cloth and silk thread, creating a double-layered structure.

Takemura is critical of excessive restoration, which overwrites works created at one time with the “words” thought by people of different eras. In this work, the lost memories of the past are delicately retranslated using reversibly unraveling silk thread, “like translating Western paintings into Japanese,” thus practicing a method of preservation that gives the work a radiance while acknowledging its loss as it is and leaving it for the future.

The final chapter, Chapter 7, “In Search of Unknown Arrangements,” simply poses works by Sugito Hiroshi, Umetsu Yoichi, Sakamoto Natsuko , and Tatsuno Toeko , who passed away in 2014, in the same space as highly experimental paintings by Claude Monet, Paul Signac, Jackson Pollock, and others of the past, in an attempt to consider what is known as Japanese “contemporary art” and measure the scope of its experimental nature.

Jun Shindo, a curator at the National Museum of Western Art and the organizer of this exhibition, said, “To be frank, I was left with the strong feeling that the National Museum of Western Art has not been a place that can inspire today’s cutting-edge artists. Some of the participating artists in this exhibition were inspired by the museum and its collection, but this was because the opportunity was provided for them.

For this reason, in the final chapter, rather than asking how the NMWA’s collection has/could inspire artists living today, he explained his intention by saying, “I wanted to ask how the works of today’s painters can compete with works of the past. I hope that this will bring to light the similarities and differences in the mutual concerns of artists across the ages.”

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Shindo also said, “I expect there will be a lot of criticism of my curatorial approach,” but rather than expecting various voices to be raised, I get the impression that he is actively seeking criticism. What message did the participating artists send about the National Museum of Western Art and its collection? How will this affect the Japanese contemporary art world? I hope you will visit the exhibition and take a sharp look at the whole picture.

Overview of “Has this become a place where future artists can rest? ──The National Museum of Western Art’s 65th Year Questions | Questions to Contemporary Artists”

*The contents of this article are current as of the time of coverage. Please check the official exhibition website for the latest information.

Article provided by: Kokosil Ueno

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Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum

 

2024 marks the 150th anniversary of the first Impressionist exhibition held in Paris. The Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum is currently holding an exhibition called “Impressionism: From Monet to America – Collection of the Worcester Art Museum” that traces the impact and influence that Impressionism, which overturned the traditions of Western art, had on Europe and America, centering on the collection of the Worcester Art Museum in the United States . The exhibition period is until April 7, 2024.

The Worcester Museum of Art, located near Boston, USA, opened in 1898 and has a collection of approximately 40,000 items, ranging from classical art from ancient Egypt, ancient Greece and Rome, to contemporary art from around the world. Among them, he actively collects Impressionism as contemporary art at the time. It has been an important part of the collection since its opening in 1898.

This exhibition focuses on the innovation of Impressionism, which overturned the traditions of Western art, and its global spread. The museum’s Impressionist collection, most of which are visiting Japan for the first time , includes not only well-known French Impressionists such as Monet and Renoir , but also American Impressionists such as Childe Hassam, who have rarely been introduced to Japan. This exhibition will introduce approximately 70 oil paintings by over 40 artists, including some of the most representative artists .

The exhibition consists of 5 chapters. In Chapter 1, “Challenging Tradition,” the Barbizon school and Realist painters, who found beauty and new subjects in the familiar landscapes and nature of their homeland of France, introduce traditional paintings, with religious and historical paintings at their peak. Introducing the movement that was the forerunner of Impressionism, which occurred in the first half of the 19th century, and which overturned the hierarchy of art.

At the same time, interest in the country’s magnificent natural beauty increased in the United States, and American-style landscapes became popular. In this chapter, you can compare the rise of landscape painting on both sides of the Atlantic.

Winslow Homer , a leading American painter of the late 19th century, incorporated plein air painting as an essential element of his work even before the advent of French Impressionism. “Winter Coast” (1892) is a work from the latter half of his career, when he was focusing on depicting the sea and the people confronting it, and his intuitive and bold brushwork depicts the rough waves crashing on the coast of Maine. used to show Homer’s impressionistic side.

Chapter 2, “Paris and the Impressionist Painters,” features Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste, who departed from the tradition of the academy and went outdoors to depict the world as it appeared to them with bright colors and bold brushwork. – Exhibits works by members of the first Impressionist exhibition, such as Renoir. In addition, you can also see works by Mary Cassatt, the only American female painter to participate in subsequent Impressionist exhibitions, and works by Childe Hassam, who has been described as the “American Monet,” while studying in Paris.

Monet’s Water Lilies (1908), introduced in the same chapter, is one of the highlights of this exhibition. Although it is an Impressionist landscape painting, with water lilies losing their outline as if blending into the pond, trees reflected in the water, and fantastic colors, there are signs of the abstract expression that became noticeable in his later works. It is a work.

Monet spent the latter half of his life in Cyverny, a suburb of Paris, where he continued to paint over 250 water lilies floating in the “water garden” he created. This work is one of the Water Lilies series exhibited at Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris in 1909, and was purchased directly from the gallery by the Worcester Art Museum the following year. Today, Water Lilies are housed in the collections of various museums, but the Worcester Art Museum was actually the first museum in the world to purchase Monet’s Water Lilies.

At the venue, a copy of the letters exchanged between the museum and the art dealer regarding the purchase of this work will also be introduced, including vivid correspondence using letters and telegrams, such as the first director’s efforts to persuade the board of directors and extend the payment deadline. I was able to find out.

Chapter 3, “International Spread,” discusses how John Singer Sargent of America, Anders Leonard Sohn of Sweden, and Alfred Stevens of Belgium took the essence of Impressionism gained in Paris back to their home countries and applied it to their artistic practices. , exhibiting works by Japanese painters such as Seiki Kuroda and Keiichiro Kume.

Many of them are not complete imitations of the style of French Impressionism, but are uniquely sublimated while merging with the culture and society of various regions, and are popular among painters who were not involved with Impressionism or who had never visited France. It tells us that it spread and developed in a variety of ways.

The highlight of this exhibition is Chapter 4, “American Impressionism,” which introduces how Impressionism was received as it spread internationally, especially in the United States.

In the mid-1880s, European Impressionism became popular among American art dealers and collectors, and many American painters went to France to meet the demand. Critics wanted young painters to discover “the beauty of their native America, away from European subjects,” so subjects that felt American, such as New England countryside and modernizing urban landscapes, continued to be preferred. I did.

Childe Hassam , who also appears in Chapter 2, was the one who was the first to incorporate the Impressionist style he had learned locally into his productions and spread it throughout the United States through summer schools and artist colonies.

Born in Boston, Hassam came into contact with Impressionist works during his first trip to Paris in 1883, and studied abroad there from 1886 to 1889. After returning to Japan, he settled in New York, where he achieved success and became one of the leading Impressionist painters in America. In this chapter, three works with different themes are displayed in chronological order, and together with Chapter 2, Picking Flowers in a French Garden (1888), you can trace the changes in his painting style and interests.

In “Columbus Boulevard, Rainy Day” (1885), which depicts Boston’s rainy thoroughfares in muted colors and soft brush strokes, the influence of Impressionism can be felt in the depiction of the hazy atmosphere of the city in the distance and the glossy light of the pavement. You can

Silph’s Rock, Appledore Island (1907), created after studying abroad in Paris and reminiscent of Monet’s cliff landscape paintings, has a drastically different touch, skillfully depicting rock surfaces and waves by changing the direction of the elongated brushstrokes. I am. Based on the idea that the scenery is constantly changing even in the same place, this work is one of the works that vividly depicts the scenery of Appledore Island from various perspectives and situations, using an approach similar to Monet’s series of works.

In “Breakfast Room, Winter Morning, New York” (1911), curtains are placed to avoid the hustle and bustle of New York, which is transforming into a modern metropolis with the construction of skyscrapers and the proliferation of automobiles, and depicts the sophisticated middle and upper class. Focuses on city life. Since 1909, Hassam has been working on the Window series, which depicts a woman alone in a room, like this one. The skyscraper depicted behind the curtain is thought to be Manhattan’s Flatiron Building, celebrated as a symbol of New York’s modern architecture, and is a clever expression of Americanity.

Edmund Charles Tarbell was an important figure in the Boston art world who had so many followers that the term “Turbellite” was coined, and as an art teacher he taught his students based on the Impressionism he learned in Paris. It spread the expression styles unique to the region.

Venetian Blind (1898) has an Impressionist feel to it due to its light and rich colors, but its focus on traditional forms and depiction of details is characteristic of a Boston school painter. The dramatic contrast of light and shadow created by illuminating the scene with light shining through the blinds was impressive, similar to the chiaroscuro technique of Baroque paintings typified by Rembrandt.

The final section , Chapter 5, “In Search of Unseen Landscapes,” focuses on Paul Signac, who adopted a pointillism technique based on optics and color theory, and Georges, who became the founder of Cubism after becoming devoted to Fauvism. This exhibition displays works by painters such as Braque, who continued to explore new forms of painting after the impact of Impressionism.

George Innes and Dwight William Tryon are representative painters of the “tonalism” painting style that was popular in America at the end of the 19th century. While Impressionism was obsessed with bold colors and vision, Tonalism emphasized the use of muted tones such as gray and blue to depict tranquility, emotional atmosphere, and the invisible.

A follower of the Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, Innes’s later work took on an increasingly metaphysical bent. The misty atmospheric expressions seen in Forest Pond (1892) are said to depict spiritual landscapes that simultaneously represent reality and the divine world, the visible and the invisible.

Tryon, on the other hand, transforms the rural landscape of South Dartmouth, Massachusetts into a mysterious utopia filled with mystery through the gentle use of paint and the delicate brilliance of light in Entrance to Autumn (1908-09). I’m letting you do it.

For the American people, who were still reeling from the effects of the Civil War, these invisible emotional scenes of Tonalism provided spiritual comfort.

“Impressionism: From Monet to America – Collection of the Worcester Art Museum” will be held until Sunday, April 7, 2024, introducing Impressionism from a global perspective, which was born in Paris and changed the common sense of beauty and freed painters from strict rules. . This is a valuable opportunity to enjoy the charm of Impressionism from countries other than France, mainly America, which has not been introduced much in Japan until now. Many of the works will be shown for the first time in Japan, so please don’t miss out on this opportunity.

Overview of “Impressionism: From Monet to America: Worcester Art Museum Collection”

Period	Saturday, January 27, 2024 – Sunday, April 7, 2024
venue	Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Opening hours	9:30-17:30, Fridays until 20:00 (Last entry is 30 minutes before closing)
Closed days	Monday, February 13th (Tuesday) *However, the office will be open on February 12th (Monday, holiday), March 11th (Monday), and March 25th (Monday).
Viewing fee (tax included)	General 2,200 yen, University/vocational school students 1,300 yen, 65 and over 1,500 yen *On Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, and after April 2nd (Tuesday), reservations are required for specific dates and times (admission is possible if there is space on the day) *Free for high school students and under. For other details, please check the exhibition official website.
Sponsored by	Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Nippon Television Network, Nippon TV Benz, BS Nippon Television, Yomiuri Shimbun
inquiry	050-5541-8600 (Hello Dial)
Exhibition official website	https://worcester2024.jp

*The contents of the article are as of the time of reporting. Please check the official website for the latest information.

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