Press Release 2018/03/20

Art on the Road – Three Traveling Exhibitions from the Hara Museum
March 10 (Saturday) – June 24 (Sunday), 2018
Galleries A, B and C (Contemporary Art)

[1] Shigeo Toya, Woods II, 1989-90 ©Shigeo Toya Installation view at Hara Museum ARC Photography: Tadasu Yamamoto

This exhibition looks back on three seminal traveling exhibitions organized by and held at the Hara Museum ofContemporary Art in Tokyo. These exhibitions, Primal Spirit – Ten Contemporary Janapese Sculptors (19901991), Photography and Beyond in Japan; Space, Time and Memory (1994-1997) and Shiro Kuramata 19341991 (1996-1999) were large-scale projects intended to introduce to the wider world cutting-edge expression byJapanese artists in the areas of sculpture, photography and design, respectively. By showing selected works fromeach of these projects, this exhibition seeks to shine a spotlight on the artworks themselves and their position andimpact within the art world.
■Featured Artists
Nobuyoshi Araki, Toshikatsu Endo, Emiko Kasahara, Tadashi Kawamata, Shiro Kuramata, Kazuo Kenmochi,Tokihiro Sato, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Kimio Tsuchiya, Shigeo Toya, Hitoshi Nomura, Miran Fukuda, Yasumasa
Morimura, Tadasu Yamamoto, Yayoi Kusama, Tabaimo

■Traveling Exhibitions Organized by the Hara Museum during the 1990s
A Primal Spirit – Ten Contemporary Japanese Sculptors (1990 –1991)
With the promotion of international exchange through contemporary art as one of its guiding policies, the Hara
Museum organized and held this exhibition to introduce foreign audiences to Japanese contemporary art whichtill then had had relatively little overseas exposure. Invited as guest curator, Howard N. Fox, then of the Los
Angeles County Art Museum, showcased 10 Japanese artists whose work not only exemplified the unique anddynamic developments happening in Japan, but also embodied the deep spirituality of Japanese culture.
Following photo shoots for the catalogue and a preview of the show in Japan at Hara Museum ARC, theexhibition traveled to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Modern Art
Museum of Fort Worth and National Gallery of Canada.
Organized by: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art
Artists: Koichi Ebizuka, Toshikatsu Endo, Chuichi Fujii, Tadashi Kawamata, Kazuo Kenmochi, Takamasa
Kuniyasu, Emiko Tokushige, Shigeo Toya, Kimio Tsuchiya, Isamu Wakabayashi
Photography and Beyond in Japan: Space, Time and Memory (1994 -1997)
This exhibition, which was guest-curated by Robert Stearns, an independent
curator from America, showcased the work of 12 contemporary artists fromJapan who use photography as a medium for artistic expression. This criticallyacclaimed show threw new light on the unique nature of contemporary
photographic expression in Japan through its analysis using the universal
concepts of space, time and memory. After a preview of the show was held atthe Hara Museum in Tokyo, it traveled to the Museo Tamayo in Mexico,
Vancouver Art Gallery, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Denver Art Museumand Honolulu Museum of Art.

[2] Nobuyoshi Araki, from Naked Faces,
1984 ©Nobuyoshi Araki

Organized by：Hara Museum of Contemporary ArtArtists: Nobuyoshi Araki, Yoshihiko Ito, Emiko Kasahara, Kotaro Koyama,
Tokihiro Sato, Toshio Shibata, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Hitoshi Nomura, Miran Fukuda,
Yasumasa Morimura, Nobuo Yamanaka, Tadasu Yamamoto

Shiro Kuramata 1934-1991 (1996 – 1999)
This exhibition looked back on 30 years of the influential designer'scareer, with a focus on furniture design. It was held at the Hara
Museum in 1996, five years after Kuramata's death in February 1991
at the young age of 56. The layout design at the Hara Museum was
the work of one of Italy's leading architects and designers, Ettore
Sottsass, who was Kuramata's trusted and revered teacher.
Sottsass's goal was a show that was not merely a display of
Kuramata's posthumous works, but an embodiment of the vision that
Kuramata sought to express. Panel photos by Nobuyoshi Arakidisplayed during the exhibition were also noted for the resonance they
had with Kuramata's design by virtue of their shared sense ofnostalgia and sensuality.
[3] Installation view of Shiro Kuramata 1937-1991 at Hara Museum, Tokyo (1996)
Photography: Mitsumasa Fujitsuka

From the Hara Museum, the exhibition traveled the next three years from 1997 to 1999 to Cultural Center andContemporary Art Museum (Mexico), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (USA), the Grey Art Gallery, NewYork University (USA), the Montreal Decorative Arts Museum (Canada), Museum of Decorative Arts, Paris(France), Austrian Museum of Applied Arts/Contemporary Art (Austria) and Kyoto National Museum of Modern Art(Japan). The exhibition enjoyed critical success wherever it went, particularly at the New York and San Franciscovenues for which it received the 1998 annual award for Best Design Show from The International Association ofArt Critics-USA.
Organized by: Shiro Kuramata Exhibition Committee (Tadao Ando, Toshio Hara, Arata Isozaki, Issey Miyake,Kishin Shinoyama, Ettore Sottsass, Ikko Tanaka, Tadanori Tokoo), Hara Museum of Contemporary Art
Special Participation by Nobuyoshi Araki■Related EventsArtist Talk
The artist Shigeo Toya will give a talk about his work on April 21 (Sat.) at 2:00 to 3:30 pm. There is will be nocharge for the event, but museum admission is required.
Guided Tour for Members of the Press
On the day of the Artist Talk, a guided tour will be given to members of the press. The tour will start at 1:00 pm
and last about 40 minutes.
How to Make a Reservation
Please send your request for a reservation by email at press@haramuseum.or.jp . Please note that the artist talkis open to the general public, but participation in the guided tour is limited to members of the press only.
Both events will be given in Japanese.
■Concurrent Exhibition at Hara Museum ARC
The Power of Ink – Kano School Partition Paintings is on view at the Kankai Pavilion.
Hara Museum ARC (Gunma)
Hara Museum ARC opened in 1988 in Shibukawa,
Gunma prefecture as an annex to the Hara Museum ofContemporary Art in Tokyo (see box on the last page).
Situated in the foothills of the Mt. Haruna, one of the socalled Jomosanzan or "Three Peaks of Jomo" (the oldname of Gunma), the museum's large-scale woodenbuildings with their sleek black exteriors (designed byArata Isozaki) stand in stark contrast to rich greens of
the surrounding highland scenery. In addition toexhibitions centered on the museum's permanentcollection, Hara Museum ARC holds events, workshops
and various art education programs. In 2008, an Open[4] Jean-Michel Othoniel, Kokoro, 2009 Photography: Yuichi Chiraku
view Storage and Kankai Pavilion were added as part ofan expansion that has enabled Hara Museum ARC to serve as a capacious setting for art that transcends theboundaries of time and place.

■Exhibition Details
Title: Art on the Road – Three Travelling Exhibitions from the Hara Museum
Dates: March 10 (Saturday) – June 24 (Sunday), 2018
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.artit.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 March 29 and May 3)*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 (elementary and juniorhigh), 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, discountfor groups of 20 or more
*Children must be accompanied by an adult.
*For residents of Gunma Prefecture: Free admission for elementary and junior high school children every
Saturday during the school term/200-yen-discount on admission for up to five persons upon presentation of theGuchoki Passport.
Directions: By train: Take the Joetsu Shinkansen to Takasaki, 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 15 minutes) from the Kan-etsu Expressway Shibukawa
Ikaho Interchange (in the direction of Ikaho Onsen).
■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.
About the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art (Tokyo) and the Collection
The Hara Museum of Contemporary Art was founded in Gotenyama, Tokyo in 1979 as one of the first
institutions in Japan specializing in contemporary art. Since its inception, under the auspices of the FoundationArc-en-Ciel, a designated Special Public Interest Promotion Corporation, the Hara Museum has ceaselessly
pursued activities to promote international exchange through contemporary art and the further development ofcontemporary art and cultivation of artists. Originally built in 1938 as a private residence by Kunizo Hara, thegrandfather of the current directory Toshio Hara, the building (designed by Jin Watanabe) stands today as arare example of Western modernist architecture in Japan. The Hara Collection comprises a rich cross-sectionof contemporary art by leading artists from around the world, ranging from masters of post-1950s art to young
artists on the forefront of art today.
Concurrent Exhibition at the Hara Museum, Tokyo
My Favorites: Toshio Hara Selects from the Permanent Collection
Part II: March 21 (Wednesday/national holiday) – June 3 (Sunday), 2018
■Press Enquiries
T. 81.279.24.6585
E. press@haramuseum.or.jp