The central pillar of the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art collection is 20th century Western art from early abstract painting, Dada and Surrealist art to postwar American art. In addition, works from Rembrandt to Impressionism and Ecole de Paris art have been collected in lieu of providing a stronger historical context for the collection. Furthermore, the museum has collected works of Japanese artists from recent years. This gives the Kawamura Museum a collection that covers the larger movements of Modern and contemporary art, with the exception of one category: Japanese art of the Modern period.

　With the influx of Western painting techniques from the late Edo period into the Meiji period (second half of the 19th century), Japanese artists began to develop forms of expression that were influenced by Western art developments but also unique in individual style. The eyes and aesthetic values with which we view art today can be said to have been shaped by the results those artistic developments, and this is also the foundation from which numerous museum collections in Japan have been formed.

　For this exhibition, we have selected four pivotal works from the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art’s collection of Western painting and display them with Japanese paintings from the Meiji period onward that show the influences of or similarities with each of these four Western works in hopes of providing insights into Japanese painting of the Modern era from a number of perspectives. At the same time, we hope that this comparison with famous works of Modern Japanese art will offer an opportunity to view the Kawamura collection anew from a different perspective. Please join us in this exploration of painting in the Modern era from the perspective of “four stories” and what they tell us about the similarities and differences between Modern Japanese and Western art, the background of the era in which Japanese artists came to acquire their own unique forms of artistic expression through painting and, finally, how these developments have shaped our contemporary Japanese eyes.

Painting like the nudes of Umehara Ryuzaburo, who studied in France directly under Renoir, and the portraits of cute children painted by Shintaro Yamashita in an Impressionist style are referred to as Yoga (Western style oil painting) in Japan and represent a genre of painting that is probably familiar and easily appreciated by most Japanese. In contrast, works like the self-portrait Kage no Shozo (Portrait of Shadow) painted while studying in Britain by Hara Busho, who was recognized in Europe as a portrait artist; the self-portrait by Takashima Yajuro, an artist of distinct individuality whose work has been rediscovered in recent years; and the calligraphy painting of Hidai Nangoku, an artist who elevated calligraphy to the realm of avant-garde art and influenced many Western artists of his day, are all works in which we find striking individuality of style.
With works like these, this exhibition offers an encounter with the broad-ranging variety of Modern Japanese painting.

In this exhibition viewers will see works of Kishida Ryusei that have not been displayed publicly for many years.

Japanese artists first absorbed Rembrandt’s style of artistic expression by copying the works of this most esteemed of post-Renaissance artists in museums while studying in Europe, or from foreign art books imported to Japan. Displayed alongside the Kawamura Rembrandt in this section of the exhibition will be works by artists including Hara Busho, who was highly acclaimed in London but was found himself unable to adjust to the Japanese art world after returning to Japan and eventually succumbed to illness in a state of sad alienation; Nakamura Tsune, who made self-portraits in the style of Rembrandt his own form of self expression; Kishida Ryusei, who was first inspired by Rembrandt and Reubens, then sought a detailed Durer-like form of artistic expression before arriving at the aesthetic seen in his later Reiko portraits of his daughter; and Takashima Yajuro, a painter who used traditional technique in a powerful style of realistic representation that might be described as otherworldly in works revealing the spirit of an artist who has reached the depths of timeless universality in painting. Vistors will also see works by artists such as Takahashi Yuichi and Goseda Yoshimatsu, who were among the first in Japan to use oil paints in the pursuit of realism at the end of the Edo period and into the Meiji period.

Inspired initially by the luminous painting style of Renoir and then going on to pursue their own individual styles of expression, painters such as Nakamura Tsune and Umehara Ryuzaburo worked to establish truly Japanese oil painting that came to be known as Yoga. In the works of Nakamura and Umehara there are aspects that are similar and aspects that are different from the paintings of Renoir. This section of the exhibition allows us to compare their respective styles.Furthermore, you will see other aspects of the birth of Japanese Yoga in the works of artists including Yamashita Shintaro, who also studied under Renoir like Umehara, and Koide Narashige, who represented the beauty of Japanese women in paintings of nudes in a free and luxuriant style.

Known as one of the fathers of abstract painting, Malevich progressed through a number of schools of painting, from Cubism to Futurism, before arriving at his own new form of pictorial expression. Vantongerloo created compositions based on mathematical formulas and would serve as one of the central members of France’s Abstraction-Creation artist group. This section of the exhibition explores abstract expression in painting from the latter half of the 1930s onward. The artists Hasegawa Saburo, Murai Masanari, Yoshiwara Jiro and Kitawaki Noboru were of a generation that got real-time information about the movements in Western art thanks to the development of the media and transportation. Not only were they able to make the latest forms of expression their own but also to create works that explored the Japanese spirit and the natural world using abstract forms of expression. They are artists who pursued with sincerity and integrity the question of what Japanese expression should be in an era of increasing materialism.

After World War II, international attention began to focus on the avant-garde art of Japan, and the work of Japanese artists began to be seen overseas. Especially the “Gutai” group formed of young artists who gathered around Yoshiwara Jiro was the focus of much attention. There was a deep connection between their form of artistic expression and that of the Informel movement in Europe occurring at the same time. Also, it can be said that the works of innovative calligraphers who were breathing new life into the tradition of calligraphy shared the same quality of spatial expression as the works of Jackson Pollock in which the artist trickled paint across the canvas. Here you can see a meeting of East and West in the passionate forms of expression involving splattering of sumi ink and paint across the paper or canvas supports.

Dates	Lecturers
July 5, 14:00-16:00	Kunio Motoe ( Prof. of Tama Art University )

• Fee: Included in Museum entrance fee
• Lecture tickets given to first 60 applicants at the Museum entrance from 11:00

Dates	Lecturers
June 27, July 25, Aug. 8, Aug. 22, Sept. 19, 14:00－15:00	Yuki Akamatsu ( Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art curator )

• First 40 visitors gathering at Entrance Hall at 14：00

Everyday except June 27, July 25, Aug. 8, Aug. 22, Sept. 19
14:00-15:00

• No reservations required, gather at entrance hall at 14：00
• May include only collection explanations when the Museum is crowded

Contains recorded explanations of the Museum collection and the Four Stories exhibition. In Japanese only.

• Rental fee: 500 yen per headset

1600 yen （ planned ） / In Japanese
On sale from June 27 at the Museum Shop.

Exhibition List Download (PDF:44KB)

Adults

¥1300

Students & Seniors over 65 with ID

¥1000

Elementary, middle and high school students

¥500

[Group rate over 20 persons (following price is for one person)]

Adults

¥1100

Students & Seniors over 65 with ID

¥800

Elementary, middle and high school students

¥400

[Persons with disability pass (+ one attendant each)]

Adults

¥1000

Students & Seniors over 65 with ID

¥700

Elementary, middle and high school students

¥300

List of exhibitions organized in the past is available.