It was just two years ago that the Australian media was bemoaning the unrequited nature of their country's love for Japanese art. Explaining the dearth of Australian art in Japanese public collections — despite the huge presence of Japanese art in Australian collections — Melbourne newspaper The Age reasoned, "Japan still hankers for European art."
Australia, your time has come. Japan is about to host the largest exhibition by an Australian artist held anywhere in the world outside their home country, ever. Starting Feb. 26, the National Museum of Art, Osaka, will host a 120-work retrospective for the late Aboriginal artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye. (The show will move to the National Art Center, Tokyo, from May 28.)
Of course, the irony is that for the director of the Osaka institution, the suave, chain-smoking Akira Tatehata, that Kngwarreye is Australian was irrelevant. "She could've been South American," says Tatehata from behind a veil of smoke during a recent interview.