Exhibition/event has ended.

"Look at me! Portrait Photographs of Nude" Exhibition

Tokyo Photographic Art Museum
Finished
Shortly after its invention the daguerreotype was used to create a photograph of a nude. In the paintings of the time, however, actual people were never portrayed in the nude, the pictures depicting anonymous figures. Nudes have been painted since pre-Christian times, but even as late as 1865 Manet was censured when he submitted his ‘Olympia’ to the Paris Salon, because it was said to have been modeled by an actual prostitute. In this way, the depiction of real people in the nude remained taboo until the end of the nineteenth century. Up until that time, nearly all the nudes that appeared in paintings depicted Eve, from the Old Testament, or Aphrodite (Venus) from Grecian mythology. It was not until some time later that nude photographs, depicting people whose identity could be recognized, were to be publicly displayed.

This exhibition starts with photographs that were taken in Japan from the mid-to-late nineteenth century. The majority of these were produced as souvenirs for foreign travelers, and provide a glimpse of the manners and customs of the times. Although they are not portraits in the true meaning of the term, they are included here as an example of the way in which the human figure was portrayed in Japan.

[Image: E. J. Bellocq, "Storyville" (1912)]

Schedule

Jul 31 (Sat) 2010-Oct 3 (Sun) 2010 

Opening Hours Information

Hours
10:00-18:00
Closes at 20:00 on Thursdays and Fridays.
Closed
Monday
Open on a public holiday Monday but closed on the following day.
Closed during the New Years holidays.
FeeAdults ¥500, College Students ¥400, Middle & High School Students and Over 65 ¥250
VenueTokyo Photographic Art Museum
http://topmuseum.jp/e/contents/index.html
LocationYebisu Garden Place, 1-13-3 Mita, Meguro-ku, 153-0062 Tokyo
Access7 minute walk from the East exit of Ebisu Station on the JR Yamanote and Saikyo lines, 11 minute walk from exit 1 at Ebisu Station on the Hibiya line.
Phone03-3280-0099
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