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November 22, 2024
 

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Monty Dipietro
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Feb 9, 2005
Feminist life actually: singing in the pain of Japan
The word "feminist" has been stripped of the luster it had back in the 1970s, and few Japanese women are more aware of this than Michiko Kasahara. Widely regarded as one of Japan's leading feminist curators, Kasahara was responsible for groundbreaking exhibitions such as "Gender: Beyond Memory" at the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jan 26, 2005
Time to reflect on transition
Japan is in the midst of a "Korea boom." It seems that the smiling face of Bae Yong Joon is everywhere, and almost 10,000 (mostly) female fans greeted the superstar Korean actor when he arrived at Narita airport last November. Perhaps sparked by 2002's jointly hosted soccer World Cup, films, fashion,...
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jan 12, 2005
Blue skies over architectural utopias
The latest offering from the Mori Art Museum lives up to its big name: "Archilab: New Experiments in Architecture, Art and the City, 1950-2005." The first architecture exhibition at the Mori, this is a big show, ambitious in both scale and manner of presentation. Featuring drawings, videos and maquettes...
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Dec 29, 2004
Cheers to contemporary art
The years are passing too quickly for this no-longer-young critic. Lest you think me embittered, let me start this year in review on a high note by trumpeting the star of 2004, a grand old dame who looks as bright and new as the day she was born -- the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art. Built in the Bauhaus...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Dec 22, 2004
An improviser of lines
When we hearken back to the revolutionary 1960s, a decade increasingly "remembered" by people who in fact weren't even alive at the time, the soundtrack that rings in our ears is, of course, rock 'n' roll.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Dec 1, 2004
Instruments of invention
It has been 91 years since Luigi Russolo published his manifesto "The Art of Noises," in which the Italian Futurist implored, "We must break out of this narrow circle of pure musical sounds and conquer the infinite variety of noise sounds."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Nov 24, 2004
A view through the looking-glass
The stories of her terrible childhood and of haunting hallucinations have created the widely accepted view that Yayoi Kusama's art emerges from unimaginable suffering. It is difficult to find anything said about Kusama that does not dwell on her mental illness and she herself does little to dispel this...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Nov 3, 2004
Feeling the joy of painting
Much has been made, in art and elsewhere, of the "East meets West" cliche. Here in Japan in the latter decades of the 19th century, the Meiji government sent boatloads of painters to Europe to study yoga (Western-style painting). They brought back oils and chiaroscuro, but their work -- as with the Japonisme...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Oct 20, 2004
Stuff of nightmares
Dear Reader,
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Oct 6, 2004
A leaf out of a scrapbook of depravity?
In this world, most people get to be teenagers for exactly seven years. And then there's the artist Larry Clark. Born in Tulsa, Okla., in 1943, Clark has been living and reliving the teen experience for some six decades.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Sep 22, 2004
Project seeks new sites for sore eyes
I would estimate that for every artist sipping champagne at an opening reception -- clad in Gaultier and coiffed with contrived insouciance -- there are hundreds of other artists sitting alone in cheap apartments eating cold noodles. "Starving artist" may be a cliche, but the truth is that most people...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Aug 25, 2004
Artists remap Americas
Bombarded as we are with the media's sound bites and video clips, it is difficult to imagine a time when the task of recording and recounting the news of the world was assigned to artists and their paintings.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Aug 11, 2004
Artist builds from zero
Suspicious of the pervasive role of Western culture in his homeland, Katsushige Nakahashi resolved to become a "Japanese artist."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Aug 9, 2004
Ozawa show gives no straight answers
When the Mori Art Museum opened its doors almost a year ago, media attention naturally focused on its prime location atop the Roppongi Hills complex (with a dazzling panoramic view of Tokyo), the debut exhibition "Happiness," and the talented and affable British gallery director, David Elliott. Less...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jul 28, 2004
Photos bloom in Ebisu's garden
Conceived during the halcyon days of Japan's economic boom, the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography (TMP) has seen plenty of ups and downs in its 10 years of operation. The fact that the TMP's entrance is hidden within Yebisu Garden Place has been one issue, but the bigger problem is that the TMP...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jul 14, 2004
Down by the river
Tucked behind a gas station on a side street out near the Sumida River, a 12-minute walk from the nearest subway station, the Shinkawa Building is not the easiest place to find on Tokyo's art map. But the nondescript two-story structure is a worthwhile visit for anyone interested in Japanese contemporary...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jun 30, 2004
Skeletons come out of the closet
For a decade now, Yoshiko Shimada has been a lonely but tireless torchbearer of feminist consciousness in Japanese contemporary art. After spending time in Germany and America, the 44-year-old returned to Japan in the mid-1990s to tackle taboos -- subjects such as the Emperor's complicity in World War...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jun 16, 2004
A 'Brazil-ness' beyond soccer and samba
I suppose that without some sort of unifying theme, every exhibition of artworks would be titled, simply and dully: "Art Exhibition." And so museums base their shows on a period, genre or, more recently, an intriguing turn of phrase. This I welcome, but exhibitions curated on the basis of the artists'...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jun 2, 2004
The challenge of not knowing your place
It is a shame that Ilya Kabakov was not feeling well enough to make the trip to Tokyo for the opening last Friday of his Mori Art Museum exhibition, "Where Is Our Place?" I met the New York-based Kabakov and his wife, Emilia, years ago when they were involved with the now-defunct Satani Gallery in Ginza,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
May 19, 2004
The sorrows of superficiality
On Oct. 31, 1999, race driver Mika Hakkinen finished first at the Suzuka Speedway to win the Japan GP and that year's F-1 Driver's Championship. It was a close and dramatic victory for the likeable Finn, and among his delirious fans on that day was the French artist Sylvie Fleury. Soon afterward, when...
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

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