2018/10/04

Flash 1979/1988
October 6 (Saturday), 2018 – January 14 (Sunday/national holiday), 2019
Galleries A, B and C at Hara Museum ARC

This exhibition looks back at two seminal years: 1979, the year the Hara
Museum was born in Tokyo ahead of a nationwide boom in art
museums, and 1988, the year Hara Museum ARC was born in Gunma,a year before Japan transitioned from the Showa period to the Heisei
period. It does this by shining a spotlight on works from the Hara
Collection that were created in each of those years.

[1] Shinro Ohtake, Retina #2(Purple Shadows), 1988-90ⓒShinro Ohtake

Featured Artists: Anselm Kiefer / Leiko Ikemura / Toshinobu Onosato /Shinro Ohtake / Kazumi Kurigami / Christo / Tom Wesselmann / Yuji
Noda / Flavio Shiro / Tomoko Maki / Tatsuo Miyajima / Lai Chi-Man / Lee
UFan / Louise Nevelson and others
Semi-permanent Installations by: Yayoi Kusama / Tabaimo
Number of featured works (approximate): 40 works by 30 artists (notincluding semi-permanent and permanent installations)

The Hara Museum and Art of Its Times
When the Hara Museum opened in the quiet residential area of Shinagawa, Tokyo in 1979, it was a rarity
in Japan: a private museum specializing in contemporary art. Originally a private residence designed by
Jin Watanabe and built in 1938, the museum building was a rare example of early 20th century
Modernist architecture. Reborn as a museum, it has provided a setting in which to experience cuttingedge contemporary art through exhibitions, events and educational programs aimed at the promotion ofinternational exchange.
The opening of the museum coincided with the second oil shock and the end of Japan's period of higheconomic growth. It was a transition period during which values shifted from material wealth to spiritual
affluence. In the field of art, the '70s saw a stronger trend towards the conceptual, with minimalist art,
which rose during the '60s, and the Mono-ha (object) school led by Lee Ufan reaching their peak during
the 1970s and giving way to developments that came to be known as Post-modernism or New Wave.
It was a time in which concepts surrounding painting and sculpture expanded and combined with aconcern for environmental problems. The result was the birth of large-scale outdoor installation works bysuch artists as Christo and Jeanne-Claude who engaged in successive large-scale projects in which they
covered natural places such as coastlines and public structures such as bridges with cloth.

[2] Lee Ufan, From Line, 1979 ⓒLee Ufan [3] Lee Ufan, From Point, 1979 ⓒLee Ufan
Lee Ufan [3] Lee Ufan, From Point, 1979 ⓒ Lee Ufan

[2] [3] Lee Ufan
a major figure in the Mono-ha (Object) school, has been enjoying wider acclaim abroad as one of themajor figures of the Mono-ha (Object) school in Japan. This show features two of his early masterworks,
From Line and From Point, both made in 1979. Consisting purely of brush marks that repeat on thecanvas surface with much white space, these images show very little modification by the artist. They areinvitations to the viewer to enter into thoughtful meditation about the image and its meaning. At the timeof the museum's opening, the chairman Toshio Hara paid a visit to the artist's studio, negotiated with theartist and obtained these two works for the collection on the spot. In 1991, the exhibition Lee Ufan washeld at Hara Museum ARC.

[4] Christo, STUDY FORPROJECT PONT-NEUF, PARIS,
1979 ⓒChristo[4] Christo and Jeanne-Claude
Christo met Jeanne-Claude in Paris just as he was embarking on his art
career in the 1950s. From then on, they were inseparable as a team bothpublicly and privately, going on to complete many projects together. They
attracted initial attention for work consisting of bottles, cans and otherordinary everyday objects that they would wrap, as well as other works
such as their stacked steel drum series. In 1964, they moved to New Yorkand thereafter pursued their “wrapped art” on a grander scale which
included buildings and nature. Successive projects included Wrapped
Walk Ways (1977, USA), Surrounded Islands (1983, USA) and The Pont
Neuf Wrapped, Paris, 1975-85 which took nine years and manynegotiations to complete. The exhibition Christo - Wrapped Walk Ways,
Kansas City, Missouri, 1977-78 was held in 1982 at the Hara Museum,and the exhibition Surrounded Islands, Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami,
Florida, 1980-83 in 1990 at Hara Museum ARC.

Works Created in the Year Hara Museum ARC Opened
Hara Museum ARC (architect: Arata Isozaki) opened in Shibukawa, Gunma in 1988 as a venue for largescale exhibitions and Hara Collection shows, and in response to the diversification of expression that
accompanied the changing of eras. The Kankai Pavilion was added in 2008, a special venue that
juxtaposes classical art with contemporary art to allow the exploration of new aesthetic possibilities.
Thirty years ago, while at the height of its economic bubble, Japan entered a period of drastic change
starting from the next year as the nation transitioned from the Showa era to the Heisei era in 1989. Otherevents during this period, such as the collapse of the Berlin Wall, greatly impacted the world. Suchturmoil in social conditions on one hand was accompanied by an economic boom on the other, and in theart world a Neo-expressionism rose in opposition to the austere conceptualism that had until then been
the mainstream. A representative of the Neo-expressionism was the artist Anselm Kiefer who tackled

such subjects as ancient myths, religion and historical themes related to his native Germany such asNazism.
Another artist, Louise Nevelson, initially studied painting but later turned to relief sculptures that she
assembled from pieces of waste wood and painted entirely in monochrome black or gold. Like the revivalof realistic paintings rich in colors and emotion, the movement towards greater diversity of expression
simultaneously arose in and spread to many countries, transcending national and cultural differences.

[5] Anselm Kiefer, Melancholia, 1988 ⓒAnselm Kiefer[5] Anselm Kiefer
As a representative of the new expressionism, Anselm Kiefer
has created many symbolic works that take as their subject
ancient myths, religion and the history of his native Germany.
This show includes his work Melancholia, which was inspiredby a work of the same name by the German painter Albrecht
Dürer. Kiefer’s works encompass various mediums including
painting, photography, sculpture and performance, but are all
characterized by the creation of powerful impressions throughrich and powerful invocation using motifs such as language
fragments, lead, straw, sand and hair.

[6] Louise Nevelson
Although Nevelson studied painting in the 1920's, during the latter
half of that decade she would turn her attention to threedimensional relief works that incorporated scrap wood materials.
These works were painted entirely in a single color such as blackor gold, which transformed the textural impression of the wood.

[6] Louise Nevelson, Mirror - Shadow XXXX1X,1988 ⓒLouise Nevelson[1] Shinro Ohtake (on page 1)
Since the 1980s, Shinro Ohtake (1955 -) has been known for artwork made with materials gathered froma variety of sources. In his “Retina” series, the artist shifted his focus from “things outside of himself” tothe “accumulation of after-images” that arise when the eyes are closed. This work is now recognized as
an important example from early in his career. It consists of a large, colorful substrate consisting of ahaphazardly exposed photographic sheet, on top of which are layered pieces of film, drawings and clothtape, and finally a coating of plastic over the entire surface that seems to capture and enclose everything
within, even the reflection of stray rays of light.
Like Melancholia by Anselm Kiefer (also included in this show), this work crosses the borders between
the plastic arts, painting and photography. We invite visitors to compare these two artworks made indifferent places in the same year.

Hara Museum ARC (Gunma)
Hara Museum ARC opened in 1988 in Shibukawa, Gunma
prefecture as an annex to the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art inTokyo. Situated in the foothills of the Mt. Haruna, one of the socalled Jomosanzan or "Three Peaks of Jomo" (the old name ofGunma), the museum's large-scale wooden buildings with theirsleek black exteriors (designed by Arata Isozaki) stand in stark
contrast to rich greens of the surrounding highland scenery. In[7] Jean-Michel Othoniel, Kokoro, 2009
Photo: Yuichi Shiraku
addition to exhibitions centered on the museum's permanentcollection, Hara Museum ARC holds events, workshops and various
art education programs. In 2008, an Open-view Storage and Kankai Pavilion were added as part of anexpansion that has enabled Hara Museum ARC to serve as a capacious setting for art that transcends
the boundaries of time and place.
The Kankai Pavilion
The Kankai Pavilion was built in 2008 as part of an expansion ofHara Museum's annex, Hara Museum ARC, that took place tomark the 20th anniversary of its founding in 1988. Its purpose isto provide a showcase for the Hara Rokuro Collection oftraditional East Asian art mainly comprised of early-modern
Japanese painting of the Kano school collected by the Meiji-era
industrialist and great-grandfather of chairman Toshio Hara.
[8] Interior view of Kankai Pavilion
The design of the Kankai Pavilion (by Arata Isozaki who also
designed Hara Museum ARC) incorporates features of theJapanese shoin (drawing room). It thus offers the viewer a new spatial experience that lies at theintersection between the traditional and the modern.
Open-view Storage (reservation required)
A part of the Hara Collection is stored in a unique open-viewstorage. During an exhibition, a guided tour lasting about one
hour is given of this space every Sunday from 2:30 pm. Accessis also provided to researchers and specialists by specialrequest.
Booking for the Sunday Guided Tour of the Open-View
Storage
Advance booking for the Sunday tour is required (limited to[9] Interior view of Open-view storage
visitors of high school age or above). Please call the museum at
0279-24-6585. The tour is given in Japanese. Please inquire if English assistance is needed.
EventSHOP＠CAFÉ

monyochita pomichi “hello hello konnichiwa”

August 2 (Thursday) – September 30 (Sunday), 2018
Venue: Café d’Art at Hara Museum ARC
Special Event: monyochita pomichi Portrait Road (reservation required)
September 22 (Sat.) and 29 (Sat.) 10:00 am - 12:00 pm, 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Price per person 2,000 yen · Price per pair 3,500 yen / Includes one drink/ First 10
reservations each day.
monyochita pomichi will sit down with each person or persons and draw their portraits which they willtake home. Time required per portrait: about 20 minutes. (For reservations and inquiries:arc@haramuseum.or.jp)

Exhibition Details
Title: Flash 1979 / 1988
Dates: October 6 (Saturday), 2018 – January 4 (Sunday/national holiday), 2019
Venue: Gallery A, B and C at Hara Museum ARC
2855-1 Kanai, Shibukawa-shi, Gunma 377-0027
Tel 0279-24-6585 Fax 0279-24-0449 E-mail arc@haramuseum.or.jp
http://www.haramuseum.or.jp (official website) http://mobile.haramuseum.or.jp (mobile site)
http://www.art-it.asia/u/HaraMuseum (blog) http://twitter.com/HaraMuseumARC (Twitter)
Hours: 9:30 am - 4:30 pm (last entry at 4:00 pm)
Organized by: Hara Museum of Contemporary Art
Closed: Thursdays (except January 3), December 4-7, 11-14 and January 1 *Subject to temporary
closure in the event of severe weather.
Admission: General 1,100 yen, Students 700 yen (high school and university) or 500 yen (elementaryand junior high), Free for Hara Museum members, 10% discount for a group of 20 or more, Combination
ticket for Hara Museum ARC and Ikaho Green Bokujo (except during Golden Week): General 1,800 yen;Students 1,500 yen (high school and university) or 1,400 yen (junior high), 800 yen (elementary), half
price for those over 70, discount for groups of 20 or more
*Children must be accompanied by an adult.
*For residents of Gunma Prefecture: Free admission forelementary and junior high school children every
Saturday during the school term/200-yen-discount on
admission for up to five persons upon presentation ofthe Guchoki Passport.
Directions: By train: Take the Joetsu Shinkansen toTakasaki, change to the Joestu Line, and disembark at
Shibukawa. From Shibukawa, ARC is 10 minutes away
by taxi or 15 minutes by bus (take the Ikaho Onsen busto ″Green Bokujo Mae″). By car: 8 kilometers (about 15minutes) from the Kan-etsu Expressway Shibukawa
Ikaho Interchange (in the direction of Ikaho Onsen).
*Visitors can view the on-going exhibitions Dynamismand Stillness (Kankai Pavilion) as well.
Concurrent Exhibition
Praises and Prayers—Selections from the Hara Rokuro Collection
Part I: October 6 (Saturday) to November 21 (Wednesday), 2018
Part II: November 23 (Wednesday) to January 14 (Monday/National Holiday), 2019
Images for Publication*Please include the credit along with the respective caption.
*Please do not trim or alter the images. Putting text over the images is prohibited.

Press Enquiries
T. 81 279 24 6585
E. press@haramuseum.or.jp