Tag - modern-art

 
 

MODERN ART

Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 25, 2013
Best of the West tops this year's major shows
Japan occupies an odd niche in the art world. Its own indigenous artistic traditions are balanced against an almost fanboy fascination with certain aspects of the canon of Western art, while there is an often half-hearted attempt to stay plugged into the global contemporary art scene with its various...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 18, 2013
Josef Koudelka: the theatrics of life
Wild white hair and beard, but dressed in a drab, olive shirt and combat jacket, Josef Koudelka is like a guerrilla Father Christmas. Wearing scuffed shoes, and with a roughly unceremonious joviality, the Czech photographer appears uncomfortable being stalked around his exhibition by dozens of press...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 18, 2013
'From Crafts to Kogei: In Commemoration of the 60th Japan Traditional Art Crafts Exhibition'
Since the establishment of the Living National Treasure designation system, by which practitioners of performing arts or crafts possessing particularly important or rare traditional techniques are feted, an exhibition showcasing recipients' works alongside that of others has taken place every year. To...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 27, 2013
The Imperial Household of tradition
The catalog for The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto's exhibition, "Treasures of the Imperial Collection: The Quintessence of Modern Japanese Art," tells us that this "sublime collection of resplendent masterpieces shines brilliantly in the history of modern Japanese art." The collection, represented...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 6, 2013
'Josef Koudelka Retrospective'
Josef Koudelka is one of today's most well-respected photographers, known especially for the gritty and authentic depictions of everyday life in his two series documenting underprivileged classes: "Gypsies" and "Exiles."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 6, 2013
'Treasures of the Imperial Collections: The Quintessence of Modern Japanese Art'
Featuring historical masterpieces that were once part of the decor of the Imperial palace, this exhibition showcases some of Japan's finest royal treasures from the Meiji, Taisho and Showa eras. Coming from the Imperial Household Agency's Sannomaru Shozokan (Museum of the Imperial Collections), these...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 23, 2013
'Seeking for Utopia'
From the October Revolution of 1917 through the 1930s, the promise of Utopia within the USSR was an important ideology in the development of the nation. As such a central theme to society, it naturally also became a focus of Russian art.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 9, 2013
Explore the many ways to read cinema
Marcel Broodthaers' films mostly deal with relations between images and words, which is unsurprising given that he was a poet first who turned to film because he came to understand the medium as an extension of language. In their combination, he sought harmony between poetry, visual art and cinema. It...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 18, 2013
Nihonga: without the hand over the eye
At its essential level, art is a battle between the eye and the hand; the first representing sensory input, the second artistic habit and convention. When the hand outweighs the eye, art can become over-stylized, clichéd, and eventually dead. Asian art has been particularly prone to this; with young...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 4, 2013
'Reading Cinema, Finding Words: Art after Marcel Broodthaers'
Marcel Broodthaers (1924-1976) was a man of many talents — a poet, filmmaker and artist — whose cerebral and witty approach to art often resulted in unusual and amusing works. He used found objects, everyday items, photography and text to create visual puns in collages and installations.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 28, 2013
'Commemorating the 10th Anniversary of the Relocation of the Mitsuo Aida Museum: Even One Simple Thing'
Poet and calligrapher Mitsuo Aida (1924-1991) is well-known in Japan for his tanka poetry and original style of handwriting. He spent his life developing and honing his craft, focusing on the preciousness of the life as a subject.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 24, 2013
Crawling through the mud in style
It's quite fitting that the major Osamu Suzuki (1926-2001) retrospective, the first since the ceramicist's passing, is taking place at The National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto, the hometown of the artist.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 10, 2013
Surveying the city from a different viewpoint
Beside Stephan Balkenhol's sculpture "Big Head with Three Part Relief" a note reads, "Nothing here is as it should be." This figureless "head" set against a black void represents "Mr. Everyman," that common figure, detached from his surround and considering his place in the world.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 3, 2013
'Floating Design: Shiro Kuramata and His Contemporaries'
Shiro Kuramata, recipient of France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, is highly regarded for his interior and furniture design. His most famous works, which possess a poetic, dreamlike quality — such as the "Miss Blanche" clear acrylic chair, which has roses suspended in it — inspired the "Floating...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 3, 2013
'War/Art 1940-1950: Sequences and Transformations of Modernism'
Japanese art of the 1940s is usually divided into that of pre-World War II, wartime and post-war works. Here, however, the modern art museums of Kamakura and Hayama are, for the first time, presenting their 1940s works collectively as products of the entire decade. The show aims to reveal the rich artistic...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 13, 2013
'Playback Artist Talks'
Since 2005, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, has provided artists with a platform to discuss their works housed at the museum. The event, called Artist Talk, has been held 30 times since its inception, each time giving an artist the opportunity to explain his or her aesthetics and career to...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 13, 2013
'Matsuda Shohei: A Centennial Retrospective'
Shohei Matsuda (1913-2004), the 2002 winner of the Commissioner for Cultural Affairs Award, was a late bloomer when it came to critical acclaim. It was not until he was in his 50s that people truly began to appreciate his artistic skills. This exhibition not only celebrates 100 years since Matsuda's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 16, 2013
'The Shibakawa Collection: Tribute to a Patron of Aoki Shigeru, Kishida Ryusei and Others'
During the late1800s, westernization in Japan brought about a new art style — yōga, for which Japanese artists emulated western conventions and techniques, inspired in particular by European painters.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 28, 2013
Francis Bacon: The restlessness of human existence
In the 1989 Tim Burton film "Batman," there is a famous scene where the Joker and his gang break into an art museum and vandalize masterpieces by the likes of Rembrandt, Degas, and Vermeer. But, just as one of his henchmen is about to slash a Francis Bacon canvas, the Joker steps in to stop him, saying,...
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
Mar 22, 2013
G-tokyo art fair makes a change
This year, four-year-old art fair G-tokyo boasts that it will turn over a new leaf with some radical changes.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?