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Exhibition/event has ended.

"Masterworks from the Permanent Collection of Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art in a Renovated Building" Exhibition

Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art

Finished

Artists

Vassilly Kandinsky, Joseph Cornell, Victor Vasarely, Rosetsu Nagasawa, Roy Lichtenstein et al.

In 1990, the Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art opened in a dense, green forest. The museum reopened in March 2008 after completing a two-year renovation and construction process that was initiated at the end of 2006. This summer, the museum will present work carefully selected from its permanent collection throughout the entire building in exhibition spaces that are now 1.5 times larger in floor area. The roughly 120 artworks exhibited in the transformed galleries include the museum's featured and popular portrait of Rembrandt, Impressionist masterworks, Modern Japanese paintings, Surrealist paintings, and postwar large-format paintings from the United States by artists such as Frank Stella.

Especially significant to this exhibition are important 20th century American masterpieces, “Anna's Light” and “Seagram Murals” by artists Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko respectively, which are exhibited separately in two new rooms. These galleries were carefully designed in accordance with the artists' original intentions with regards to size, viewing distance, illumination and building materials. While viewing the exhibit “Anna's Light” in the Newman Room, one can see nature outside through glass windows with a gauze screen. The expansiveness of the large red surface and the expansiveness of nature respond to each other in affirmation of our museum's commitment to artwork in how in relates also to architecture and the natural environment.

In addition, “Room 203,” a bright square room with a 6-meter high ceiling, was designed as a special exhibition space that allows for the possible exhibition of large-scale artworks. For this occasion, the museum will exhibit Pop Art by artists such as Warhol and Lichtenstein, as well as postwar European masterpieces.

Much of the building was designed to bring natural light and greenery into view. Artworks appear to exist quietly and freely in this unconstrained building. They connect with the woods outside, where the trees seem to breathe life.

[Image: Roy Lichtenstein "Wallpaper with Blue Floor Interior" (1992) ©Estate of Roy Lichtenstein, New York & SPDA, Tokyo, 2008]

Schedule

Jun 3 (Tue) 2008-Aug 31 (Sun) 2008