Toshikatsu Endo: The Archeology of the Sacred

Museum of Modern Art, Saitama

Finished

Artists

Toshikatsu Endo

Influenced by the minimalism and Mono-ha movements that radically reexamined the principles of art in the 1960s and 1970s, the Japanese sculptor Toshikatsu Endo went beyond these foundations in the 1980s. His sculptures of ships, tubs, and coffins reassert the narrative quality of art with allusions to ancient culture and mythology while evoking eros and thanos as the origins of human life through primitive elements such as water and fire. The overwhelming scale of Edo’s work has the power to directly move the viewer, combining perceptions of wonder and ecstasy and life and death. To Endo, art was something through which to approach the sacred.

A renowned international artist who has shown his works at Documenta, the Venice Biennale, and other exhibitions around the world, Endo is now the subject of a major retrospective presenting his works in Japan’s Kanto region for the first time in 26 years. Focusing on pieces created since 2010, this exhibition pursues the essence of Endo’s current practice through the lenses of “archeology” and “the sacred.”

[Related Event]
Special Talk by Toshikatsu Endo “Art and Narrative”
Date: July 23 (Sun) 13:30–16:30

Film Screening + Talk
Endo will discuss the parallels between Andrei Tarkovsky’s “Stalker” and his works along with a screening of the film.
Date: Aug. 20 (Sun) 12:30–16:00
All events in Japanese. Please see the official website for details and information on more events.

Schedule

Jul 15 (Sat) 2017-Aug 31 (Thu) 2017