Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) was born in a small city called Delft located near Haag in Holland. He only produced about 30 works in his entire life. He is considered a "master of light" for his sophisticated skill in depicting illumination. Vermeer's paintings are rarely exhibited in Japan. This exhibition, consisting of masterpieces from the Dutch Golden Age, was made possible with the support of several European countries which all celebrate the 150th anniversary of their amity with Japan. Along with Vermeer's masterpieces, works by Delft painters, who represent the Dutch Golden Age, are gathered for this exhibition. A total of seven works by Vermeer are on display in this exhibition. The works include "The Girl with a Wine Glass," which beautifully depicts an interior space filled with light, one of the only two Vermeer landscapes entitled "the Little Street," "Young Woman Seated at the Virginals" which was acknowledged to be one of his works in recent years, "Art of Painting" which is known as his best work, "Christ in the House of Martha and Mary," "Diana and Her Companions," and "Woman with a Lute near a Window." In addition to Vermeer's works, 35 rare and highly reputable paintings created during the Dutch Golden Age are showcased, including works by Carel Fabritius (1622-1654) and Pieter de Hooch (1617-1683). This could be a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition where masterpieces from Delft are gathered for one exhibition. "Vermeer Exhibition Commemorative Symposium" August 2nd (Sat) 14:00-16:00 Panelists: Peter Sutton (Bruce Museum of Arts and Science) and others. Location: Museum Lecture Hall Capacity: 240 people Free admission. *Numbered tickets for the talk will be distributed from 13:00 in front of the lecture hall.

2008 marks the 350th anniversary of the birth of Edo period artist Korin Ogata, who founded an innovative, ornamental school of painting and crafts called "Rinha". Rinha was not a hereditary school of art that carried on over generations, but rather the manifestation of Ogata's personal idolization of artists such as Koetsu Honami, Sotatsu Tawaraya and Hoichi Sakai. This exhibition features stellar works by 6 artists who informed the aesthetics of the Rinha school - Koetsu Honami, Sotatsu Tawaraya, Hoichi Sakai, Korin Ogata, Kenzan Ogata and Kiichi Suzuki. Through a comparison of works on the same theme, tracing the genealogy of the Rinha school in concrete terms, this exhibition hopes to bring to light the individual singularity of each artist. On display are paintings, calligraphy, crafts and so on.

Since ancient times, the representation of Eros has been associated with a male figure, while the appreciation of this image is also assumed to be through a male gaze. It may be no exaggeration to say that the concept and representation of Eros has been constructed from a purely male perspective. The dualism posed by the two genders, male-female, has always been posited in a way that prioritizes the male before the female. In most cases, female nudes are examined from a male viewpoint, as if the image of Eros was something only to be shared among men. Doesn't Eros also exist in the female domain? The participating artists in this exhibition attempt to tackle the representation of Eros that resides within women. [Image: Miyuki Ishiguro]

Renowned photographer Michiko Kon first creates unique objects out of fish and vegetables, as well as flowers and insects, then photographs them and develops the images as gelatin silver prints. Various objects that emerge out of her fertile imagination appear on monochrome printing paper, an incomparably beautiful world created out of opposing elements such as light and shadow, life and death, imagination and reality. Kon has been making black and white photographs since the late 1970s, while also making color work on and off since 1994. Her "black and white" world of photography has expanded to "red and black" and "blue and black"; and since 2001, her focus has turned to color photography. The prints on view at this exhibition make up a selection of her masterpieces, including "Yellowtail and Hat," "Octopus and Melon," as well as "Sunflower and Sardines," which were recently printed using the platinum printing process. Granted a new lease of life through this process, these photographs have come to look more elegant with a lithograph-like texture. Kon created these new "still-life photographs" through her keen sense for and attentiveness to surface and materials. Around 15 platinum prints carefully selected from Kon's oeuvre from 1979 to the present are on display.

At the age of 11, John Everett Millais (1829-1896) became the youngest pupil ever to be admitted to the School of Royal Academy of Arts. However, he got soon tired of the classes and the outdated customs of the Academy, and in 1848 he founded the "Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood" with Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Holman Hunt. Millais played a central role in this group, which caused a veritable artistic revolution in Britain. This exhibition brings together some of his most representative works, such as Ophelia and Christ in the House of His Parents, borrowed from Tate Britain and other important collections in and outside the United Kingdom. Ranging from oil paintings to sketches and from work he produced in his teens to paintings from the end of his life, it presents a full and comprehensive view of the artist's career, making this event the first real retrospective Millais exhibition in Japan. [Image: "Ophelia" (1851-2), oil on canvas, from the Tate Collection]

Opening Reception: August 29th (Fri) 19:00-21:30

Tomoko Yoneda is an internationally active photographer currently based in London. Last year, she participated in the 52nd Venice Biennale. In this exhibition, she presents her latest series of works to the public for the first time, as well as her representative series Scene and Between Visible and Invisible, and After the Thaw, which may be considered an extension of the Scene series. Also included is Topographical Analogy, a series created early in her career in which her signature style as a photographer is clearly evident. This solo exhibition is the first one to present a comprehensive overview of her work to date. As a photographer, Yoneda is loyal to photography as a medium for observing and recording a subject. In her continuing series Scene (1998-), the photographs she takes are seemingly of mountains, beaches and urban scenes. These sites, however, are actually the settings of historical events that link to collective memories in terms of nation, race and society, such as the former battlefields of the First and Second World War. The significance of each place, however, is apparent only from the title; what the picture allows to be disclosed is merely a banal landscape. Monuments are often erected in public spaces to allow the memory of a historical event or person to be shared. Such "memory-evoking devices" are either missing or hard to find at the sites depicted in Scene. Nonetheless, these places are indelibly etched by the historical moment or memory. This way of "seeing the invisible" may be said to be the defining trait of Yoneda's photography. When viewers become aware of this, they may begin to sense something strangely disquieting in the tranquil scenes presented to them. They may also rediscover through Yoneda's work an appreciation for the power of the camera lens to express individual points of view. [Image: "Freud's Glasses - Viewing a text by Jung II" (1998), gelatin silver print (from Between Visible and Invisible）©Tomoko Yoneda Courtesy of Shugo Arts]

Masataka Nakano is a photographer who keeps shooting photographs of Tokyo: his works include "Tokyo Nobody", "Tokyo Window Scenes", "Tokyo Snowscapes", "Black Out Tokyo," "Tokyo Float"...Nakano captures the city with a humorous, sympathetic eye, approaching it from various angles with something approaching a maniacal obsession.

America has been a leader in the realm of photographic expression since the early days of the medium, especially throughout the 20th century - both as a fertile ground for creating photographic work and as the subject of its expression: for Americans certainly, but also especially for artists from Europe and Asia. This "Visions of America" exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography is divided into 3 parts and eras, exploring the history of the medium from the days of the 19th century daguerreotype up until the present. Through a consideration of America as place and locale - including interpretations of that place through the eyes of non-Americans - this exhibition aims to reassess the notion of "America" through an examination of photography and photographic history in this country. In addition, the exhibition is not just a means of reading the history of America since its founding, but also a way of interpreting the multi-layered global-local character of American culture. In short, "Visions of America" is a prime opportunity for one and all, not just photography buffs, to rediscover works and photographers already familiar to Japanese audiences through this approach.