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Picks is a monthly sampling of Japan's art scene, offering commentary by a variety of reviewers about current or recent exhibitions at museums and galleries around the country.
Note: Although Japan's state of quasi-emergency has been lifted, many museums and galleries still require reservations or have other anti-Covid measures in place. If you are planning a visit, please check the venue's website beforehand. |
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| Contemporary Realism |
| 9 April - 5 June 2022 |
The Hiratsuka Museum of Art
(Kanagawa) |
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Another realism boom is upon us, and atavistically "realist" elements can be found in the work of many contemporary artists -- proof that the tradition is alive and well. In Japan one can trace realist influence back as far as Yuichi Takahashi (1828-1894). Introducing oil paintings by Takahashi as well as the lifelike iki-ningyo dolls of Kisaburo Matsumoto and other 19th-century practitioners, the show attempts to provide some context for the advent of realism in contemporary painting and sculpture, demonstrating that in Japan, at least, this mode of expression did not originate solely in the West. |
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| Mika Endo: Put Your Roots Down Here |
| 22 April - 19 June 2022 |
Hamamatsu Municipal Museum of Art
(Shizuoka) |
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Endo (b. 1984) creates finely etched woodcuts that cover vast surfaces composed of multiple plywood panels, and could easily be mistaken for pen drawings. The 26 works shown here were chosen by the artist herself, and include Arising, which won the Gen Yamaguchi New Face Award at the 76th Japan Print Association Exhibition, and Led On, a new piece that is five meters long. Also on view are the original woodblocks.
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| Collection of Petit Palais de Genève: Blossoming French Paintings |
| 9 April - 19 June 2022 |
Shizuoka City Museum of Art
(Shizuoka) |
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Founded in Geneva, Switzerland in 1968 by businessman Oscar Ghez, the Petit Palais was dedicated to "art in the service of peace." Though the museum closed after Ghez's death in 1998, its collection of French paintings from the late 19th to early 20th century has been shared with the public through exhibitions in various countries since then. This, the first such presentation in Japan in 30 years, features 65 oil paintings that offer a solid overview of modern French art.
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| Toeko Tatsuno: Expressing the Perceptions of the Body |
| 19 April - 19 June 2022 |
BB Plaza Museum of Art
(Hyogo) |
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Dedicated to flat-surface abstract expression throughout her life, Tatsuno (1950-2014) never flagged in her pursuit of the latent possibilities and power of pictorial space. Though she also painted with oil and acrylic, this exhibition focuses on her print art. For Tatsuno, the print was a medium that deepened the contemplative aspect of creation due to its inevitable divergence from the intent of the artist. Viewers of these works can appreciate how she used printmaking to express the struggle between reason and sense in a quest for form and texture in space.
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| Terracotta Warriors and Ancient China: Heritage from the Qin and Han Dynasty |
| 25 March - 22 May 2022 |
Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art
(Kyoto) |
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This exhibition of some 200 figures excavated in Guanzhong, China is the first time that Chinese government-designated "first-class cultural artifacts" have been displayed in Japan. Says the museum: "Visitors can observe the historical wonder of how the tiny terracotta warriors of the Warring States period became life-size warriors at the Mausoleum of the First Emperor, and then smaller warriors at the Mausoleum of the Han Dynasty Emperors. The exhibition also focuses on the similarities between the Mausoleums of the First Emperor and Han Emperors and the pyramids of Egypt, and explores the mysteries of ancient mausoleums in the East and West through satellite images." |
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| Kenji Sato: Wonderlands / Worlds |
| 2 April - 5 June 2022 |
Otani Memorial Art Museum, Nishinomiya City
(Hyogo)
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Sato has visited more than 120 countries in his never-ending search for "strange things" of all sorts, and brings a curatorial and aesthetic perspective to his photography and writings. His oeuvre brims with curiosities from the world over -- cultural and architectural oddities, surreal natural landscapes, peculiar habits of dress and behavior. This show brings together works from his seminal 2010 series The Wonderland Heritage, his latest (2021) publication The World, the innovative SATELLITE, and, just for this exhibition, some aerial shots of Nishinomiya City.
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| Range of the Senses: What It Means to "Experience" Today |
| 8 February - 22 May 2022 |
The National Museum of Art, Osaka
(Osaka) |
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A showcase of works by seven artists "who have developed experimental practices in the field of contemporary art based on unique perspectives and techniques." The curators continue: "These efforts are a reflection of the real world and the things that are occurring in it at this very moment. The gallery spaces might be likened to 'sensory laboratories.' And the viewer might perceive the works as both complete expressions and variable entities that are in the process of changing into something else." (For a detailed review, see this issue's Focus.) |
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| Takehisa Yumeji and Maidens: Beauty, Graphics, and Modern Life |
| 9 April - 30 May 2022 |
Iwami Art Museum
(Shimane) |
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Takehisa (1884-1934) earned fame during the Taisho and early Showa eras for his portraits of languid, melancholy women. He also produced scores of illustrations that place him at the vanguard of early 20th century graphic design. Introduced here are examples of both his paintings of beauties and his designs for books, magazines, and even sheet music. The show further analyzes four "elements" unique to Takehisa's works and compares them with those of his contemporaries and successors in an attempt to discern what made his style so popular with young women of the day. |
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| Grandma Moses: A Retrospective Exhibition |
| 12 April - 22 May 2022 |
Higashihiroshima City Museum of Art
(Hiroshima) |
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Anna "Grandma" Moses (1860-1961) was a farm wife who began painting in earnest in her late seventies and had her first solo show in New York at age 80. Once discovered, her simple, unpretentious renderings of everyday life, familiar landscapes, and seasonal events brought her instant fame -- yet she continued to live a modest life in the same small upstate New York village to the end of her days. To commemorate the recent 160th anniversary of her birth, this retrospective brings 130 of Grandma Moses's works to Japan, some for the first time -- among them the last one she painted, at age 100.
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