PRESS RELEASE

1 7 . Decembe r2. 02018
18.11.7

Museum東of京ContemporaryArt Tokyo
都現代美術館

リニューア ル・オ ー Exhibition
プン 記念展GrandReopening
F r i . 29 . March

Sun . 16 . June . 2019

Special Exhibition

Weavers of Worlds- A Century of Flux in Japanese Modern / Contemporary Art MOT Collection

Pleased to meet you. New Acquisitions in recent years
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo ( MOT) will celebrate its Grand Reopening in late March 2019,
almost three years after closing to upgrade its equipment and improve its utility as a museum building.
The renovation is the first major rehab of the building since the museum’s inauguration in 1995.
To mark the Grand Reopening, MOT will hold two concurrent exhibitions—one in its specialexhibition galleries (3 floors) and one in its collection galleries (2 floors)—to thoroughly display
its collection on a large scale in the entire space of the museum.
The collection of MOT consists of some 5,200 works in total. At its core are 3,000 pieces relocatedto MOT, upon its opening in 1995, from Ueno’ s Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, a home for exhibitionsof ontemporaneous art since 1926. An additional 2,200 pieces have been acquired by MOT.
Distinguishing the collection are artworks of striking originality that captured attention in each era—
works which looked in new directions and broke from conventional lineages of art history.
Through exhibits installed throughout the entire museum, this Grand Reopening presentation willcomprehensively re-examine the collection at MOT, whose scope extends from avant-garde worksof the pre- and postwar years to contemporary works created in this century. To broadly inquire
into MOT’ s significance as a museum that has examined the artistic endeavors of each successive
era will be a valuable undertaking at a time when MOT is embarking anew.
The Special Exhibition will take new perspectives on MOT’s collection to substantiate the special
character of its holdings—artworks acquired through exhibitions and investigative research,
and archival materials held in the museum library. The MOT Collection exhibition, meanwhile,
will focus on the collection’s most recent additions and feature works acquired in recent years.

１Special Exhibition

Weavers of Worlds- A Century of Flux in Japanese Modern / Contemporary Art -Outline
This exhibition will survey the Japanese art of the past 100 years, from the 1910s to 2010s,
through works mainly in the museum’s collection. Its aim—to show how the artists, by taking
a discerning critical perspective, have selected strands of already established and radically newand techniques, and woven their own distinctive worlds. From the 1920s era of KISHIDA Ryusei
to the present day, artists in each generation have studied the issues specific to their timeand created works that critically examine the “circumstances of Japanese art.”
In its narrative on modern and contemporary Japanese art, the exhibition will not situate
the artists in the context of a static view of history; instead it will look at the particular
practice of the artist who, by selectively adopting elements, was able to arouse his subject.
It will furthermore display artworks whose subject matter relates to the Kiba district where
the museum is located, a community that has witnessed dramatic change these 100 years.
By surveying the artistically important works that punctuate Japanese modern / contemporary
art history, in galleries on all three of the museum ’ s fl o o rs, th e e xh i b i ti o n will profile
the history of one hundred years.

Highlights
For the first time, the entire special exhibition galleries on three floors will be devoted todisplaying the powerfully experimental works of this museum, dating from 1910 tothe present, from the perspective of their connection with the art of today.
Japanese modern / contemporary art will be examined from the perspective of artists
who selected among diverse art styles and techniques, old and new, to form a creative,
critical relationship with society. From this, the path-breaking character of their artistic
endeavor, taking as its subject their own predicament of creating art in Japan— a nation
with a hybrid culture—will grow clear.
Besides selected artworks, valuable archive materials from the pre-war era will also bepresented from the museum’s collection, which has evolved with changing landscape ofcontemporary art. They will include magazines of the Sosaku-hanga ( “creative prints” )art movement from the museum library.

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Special Exhibition
1. KISHIDA Ryusei,
Self-Portrait Sent to Mr.TSUBAKI, 1914

2. NAKAHARA Minoru, Baby Cedar, 1947

4. KATSURA Yuki, Resistance, 19523. TSURUOKA Masao, Heavy Hand, 1949

5. Ay-O, Pastoral, 1956

7. MORIMURA Yasumasa, Portrait ( Shonen1, 2, 3 ) , 1988

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6. YOKOO Tadanori, KOSHIMAKI-OSEN,Gekidan Jokyo Gekijo, 1966

8. IZUMI Taro, Steak House,2009

9. KATO Izumi, Untitled, 2013

Pleased to meet you. New Acquisitions in recent years
MOT Collection

OutlineCurrently, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo holds some 5,200 pieces in its collection,
which spans the modern and contemporary periods with a focus on art of the postwar years.
MOT regularly features the works in “MOT Collection” exhibitions, choosing a different theme
each term to show the diverse appeal of contemporary art, and contriving to enable viewing
the same artwork from different perspectives.
Having newly acquired some 300 works during its three-year closure, the museum will focus
on these new acquisitions in its “MOT Collection” exhibitions this fiscal year, to mark its
Grand Reopening. In term one, the exhibition will spotlight works produced in the 2010s andalso unveil earlier collected works that have undergone restoration. In MOT’s newly renovatedgalleries, thus, people familiar with MOT’s collection and those viewing it for the first time
will be able to enjoy fresh encounters with each of the works.

10. NAKAZONO Koji, Untitled, 2012

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11. TANADA Koji, statue of rain, 2016

Information
Special Exhibition / MOT Collection

PeriodFri. 29. March − Sun. 16. June. 2019

Venue

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Special Exhibition: Exhibition Gallery 3F, 1F, B2F
MOT Collection Exhibition: Collection Gallery 1F, 3F

Organized by

Tokyo Metropolitan Government,
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo(Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture)

Special Exhibitioncurators

SEKI Naoko / YABUMAE Tomoko

MOT Collection
curators

MUTA Yukihide / NISHIKAWA Mihoko / FUJII Aki / CHINZEI Yoshimi

Contact
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Public Relations
Mihoko Naka j i ma / C h i a ko Ku d o
TE L + 81 - 3 - 5 2 4 5 - 1 1 3 4
E-MAIL mot-pr@mot-art.jp

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Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo

Grand Reopening Exhibition

Special Exhibition

Weavers of Worlds- A Century of Flux in Japanese Modern / Contemporary Art MOT Collection

Pleased to meet you. New Acquisitions in recent years
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Special Exhibition

MOT Collection

1. KISHIDA Ryusei, Self-Portrait Sent to Mr.TSUBAKI, 1914

10. NAKAZONO Koji, Untitled, 2012

2. NAKAHARA Minoru, Baby Cedar, 1947

11. TANADA Koji, statue of rain, 2016

3. TSURUOKA Masao, Heavy Hand, 1949
4. KATSURA Yuki, Resistance, 1952
5. Ay-O, Pastoral, 1956
6. YOKOO Tadanori, KOSHIMAKI-OSEN, Gekidan Jokyo Gekijo, 1966
7. MORIMURA Yasumasa, Portrait ( Shonen1, 2, 3 ) , 1988
8. IZUMI Taro, Steak House, 2009
9. KATO Izumi, Untitled, 2013

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo

Public Relations
Mihoko Nakajima / Chiako Kudo
T E L + 81 - 3 - 5 2 4 5 - 1 1 3 4
E-MAIL mot-pr@mot-art.jp
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