PRESS RELEASE

2024. 6.19

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo

MOT Collection:
Seven Beauties in the Bamboo Forest
Special feature

NOMURA Kazuhiro

Eye to Eye
Saturday, 3 August – Sunday, 11 November 2024

The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo houses over 5800 works of art from modern to contemporary,with a particular emphasis on post-war art. The MOT Collection exhibitions present works from thatcollection, adopting a different approach on each occasion to advertise the diverse attractions ofcontemporary art.
In a display dubbed “Seven Beauties in the Bamboo Forest” and dominated by recent acquisitions,the first floor will focus on seven female artists. The title “Seven Beauties in the Bamboo Forest”
comes from that of a work by KONO Michisei held by the museum. In Kono’s painting, the ancient
Chinese “Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove,” spurning worldly concerns to congregate in a bamboo
grove and engage in philosophical chat are transformed into women in vibrantly-hued garb. Inspiredby the sight of these seven women of different cultures and eras mingling harmoniously among theflowers and birds of a light-filled bamboo forest, for this exhibition we decided to illuminate the workof some female artists whom the museum has hitherto had few opportunities to showcase. Thecharacter 妍 (ken) of the title, meaning beauty, generally refers to a certain grace or refinement inappearance, but here refers to how each of the seven artists has engaged with the idea of beauty, andContact Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Public Relations / Uchibori, Kudo, Inaba
E-MAIL: mot-pr@mot-art.jp TEL: +81-3-5245-1134 https://www.mot-art-museum.jp/en* All Programs are subject to change.

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produced art accordingly. Offerings from MADOKORO (AKUTAGAWA) Saori and TAKAGI Toshiko, bothborn exactly a century ago, URUSHIBARA Hideko, KOBAYASHI Donge, and MAEMOTO Shoko willcomprise mainly new additions, while the works of FUKUSHIMA Hideko and ASAKURA Setsu, alreadyin the collection, will be grouped together. To coincide with this display of work by the seven women,
the first floor will also play host to a special exhibit by NOMURA Kazuhiro, an artist with a career
characterized by the exploration of the creative act via conceptual works.
The third-floor exhibition, titled “Eye to Eye,” turns its attention to different types of gaze. Kicking
off with gaze as painted by the likes of Alex KATZ, NAKAMURA Hiroshi, and NAKAZONO Koji, “Eye toEye” goes on to include a diverse array of works, including sculptures in reflective materials by TADA
Minami and Monir Shahroudy FARMANFARMAIAN; the works of Georges ROUSSE, who creates
illusory installations in derelict buildings and photographs them; and an installation by KAIHATSU
Yoshiaki, who brings a playfulness to the space between the visible and invisible. There will also be a
special exhibition of work by HASEGAWA Shigeru, a painter consistently dedicated to interrogating
the status of paintings as “things to be seen.”*This exhibition is a continuation of the previous term, with some of the exhibits replaced.
*Please be informed that the contents of the exhibit may be subject to change.

Artists
ASAKURA Setsu, URUSHIBARA Hideko, KAIHATSU Yoshiaki, KONO Michisei, KOBAYASHI Donge,
TAKAGI Toshiko, TADA Minami, NAKAZONO Koji, NAKAMURA Hiroshi, NARA Yoshitomo, NOMURAKazuhiro, HASEGAWA Shigeru, FUKUSHIMA Hideko, MAEMOTO Shoko,
MADOKORO(AKUTAGAWA)Saori, MIYAWAKI Aiko, John BALDESSARI, Monir Shahroudy

FARMANFARMAIAN, Alex KATZ, Roy LICHTENSTEIN, Gerhard RICHTER, Georges ROUSSE,Andy WARHOL and more

Contact Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Public Relations / Uchibori, Kudo, Inaba
E-MAIL: mot-pr@mot-art.jp TEL: +81-3-5245-1134 https://www.mot-art-museum.jp/en* All Programs are subject to change.

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Information
Exhibition Period:

Saturday, 3 August – Sunday, 10 November, 2024

Closed:Mondays (except 12 Aug., 16 Sep., 23 Sep., 14 Oct.)13 Aug., 17 Sep., 24 Sep., 15 Oct., 5 Nov.

Opening Hours:

10 AM - 6 PM (Tickets available until 30 minutes before closing.)*Open until 9 PM on Fridays in August

Admission:

Adults – 500 yen / University & College Students – 400 yen / High School Students, Over
65 – 250 yen / Free for under Junior High School Students & Temporary Exhibition tickets
holders

Venue:

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Collection Gallery

Organized by

Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo operated by Tokyo

Curated byMetropolitan Foundation for History and Culture
FUJII Aki, CHINZEI Yoshimi, OKAMURA Keiko, TAMURA Mariko (MOT)

Also on view
A Personal View of Japanese Contemporary Art: Takahashi Ryutaro Collection
Yoshiaki Kaihatsu: ART IS LIVE―Welcome to One Person Democracy

Contact Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Public Relations / Uchibori, Kudo, Inaba
E-MAIL: mot-pr@mot-art.jp TEL: +81-3-5245-1134 https://www.mot-art-museum.jp/en* All Programs are subject to change.

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To request publicity images, please contact our Public Relations team withthe caption number of the desired image.

Seven Beauties in the Bamboo Forest
Special feature

NOMURA Kazuhiro

1. KONO Michisei, Seven Beauties in the Bamboo Forest, 1923

2. URUSHIBARA Hideko, The Snow Man, 1956

3. MAEMOTO Shoko, Deep Sea Anemone – Eat Up the Heaven!, 1992
Photo: SUEMASA Mareo

courtesy: GALLERY KOBAYASHI

Contact Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Public Relations / Uchibori, Kudo, Inaba
E-MAIL: mot-pr@mot-art.jp TEL: +81-3-5245-1134 https://www.mot-art-museum.jp/en* All Programs are subject to change.

44. KOBAYASHI Donge, From Edgar Allan Poe:

5. TAKAGI Toshiko, Flower, 1981

Morella, c.1970

6. NOMURA Kazuhiro, Altar of Laughter, 2014/2019 photo:

7. NOMURA Kazuhiro, untitled (grapes), 2007 photo: Ichiro

Haruyuki Shirai

Otani

Eye to Eye

8. NAKAMURA Hiroshi, Eye from Chiaroscuro, 2015-16

Contact Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Public Relations / Uchibori, Kudo, Inaba
E-MAIL: mot-pr@mot-art.jp TEL: +81-3-5245-1134 https://www.mot-art-museum.jp/en* All Programs are subject to change.

59.TADA Minami, Frequency 37306505, 1965

photo: Masaru Yanagiba

10, KAIHATSU Yoshiaki, ON THE TABLE, 2010
©︎Yoshiaki Kaihatsu

11. NAKAZONO Koji, Post Human, 2007

12. HASEGAWA Shigeru, [no title], 2007

13. HASEGAWA Shigeru, happy white macaron-chan, 1997

Contact Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Public Relations / Uchibori, Kudo, Inaba
E-MAIL: mot-pr@mot-art.jp TEL: +81-3-5245-1134 https://www.mot-art-museum.jp/en* All Programs are subject to change.

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