Press Release 2013/10/03

Yasumasa Morimura – Rembrandt Room Revisited
October 12 (Saturday) – December 23 (Monday / national holiday), 2013[1]

The Hara Museum is proud to present Yasumasa Morimura – Rembrandt Room Revisited, a 2013 reprise of Yasumasa
Morimura's Rembrandt Room exhibition held in 1994 at the Hara Museum. The works in this show, now part of the Hara
Museum Collection, appear together again for the first time in 20 years. Morimura has won international acclaim forphotographic self-portraits in which he has become the subject in a famous painting, an actress or some other widely
recognizable icon. His first appropriations were of Van Gogh in 1985. These were followed by many famous paintings thatnow comprise a large body of work that offer unique interpretations of the original artworks and/or their historicalbackground. In 1989, he became a focus of international attention for his contribution to Aperto ′88 at the Venice Biennale.
Since then he has held many major solo exhibitions at venues such as the Yokohama Museum of Art and the Tokyo
Metropolitan Museum of Photography. As one of Japan′s most well-known artists, he was awarded the Minister ofEducation Award for Fine Arts in 2007 and the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon in 2011. He was recently named artistic
director of the 2014 Yokohama Triennale.
The Hara Museum has held two large-scale exhibitions of Morimura works. Rembrandt Room (1994) was an in-depth
examination of the dark and bright sides of the Dutch artist′s life. Self-Portraits: An Inner Dialogue with Frida Kahlo(2001) paid homage to the life and loves of one of Mexico′s most famous painters of the 20th century. The Hara Museum
also features a permanent installation by Morimura entitled Rondo (1994) which involved a unique conversion of one of themuseum's toilets. The figure in the installation has been adorned with a new outfit for this exhibition.
Please note that the following solo exhibitions by Yasumasa Morimura will be held during the same period as the present
show: Las Meninas Renacen de Noche (In Praise of Velásquez : Handmaidens Reborn in the Night), at the Shiseido Galleryin Tokyo (September 28 - December 25) and Yasumasa Morimura: Theater of the Self at the The Warhol in Pittsburg,Pennsylvania (October 6 – January 12, 2014).

About Yasumasa Morimura - Rembrandt Room (1994)
Yasumasa Morimura – Rembrandt Room was held at the Hara Museum from
September 10 to November 3, 1994. For this show, Morimura, whose subject at
the time was the modern-day "self", chose to focus on the life of Rembrandt,
the renowned 17th century Dutch painter who painted a large number ofself-portraits and was a pioneer in the exploration of the "self" in art.
Rembrandt emerged in the golden age of modern individualism, confronting thecanvas and the mirror with the question, "Who am I?" Highly gifted, he gained
wealth and renown early in his career. However, a declining economy anddiminishing fame left him lonely and miserable in old age. Morimura put
himself in the self-portraits which portray the different stages of the artist's lifeand his way of approaching each stage: the energetic exploration ofpossibilities in youth, the confidence of maturity, and the lack of pretension
and honesty with self that marked his old age.
Morimura also played the roles of four people close to Rembrandt - his
respected mother, his beloved son, his young, voluptuous wife, and the lover
who became his companion after his wife's death. In contrast to artistic
predecessors who have been involved in a search for the authentic self,
Morimura proposes the idea of an "open-ended self." After carefully
examining the original paintings, he elucidated the characteristics of thesepeople and their relationships to Rembrandt in his new versions.
Another theme of Rembrandt Room was light and shadow. One of the most fascinating aspects of Rembrandt's painting isthe dramatic contrast of light and shadow produced by applying layers of bright color on a black canvas and spotlighting themain figure. Today, 350 years after the passing of Rembrandt's candle-lit world, light is represented by the flash ofradioactive materials. This light is excessive, obscuring our vision and creating a new kind of darkness. Morimura waspreoccupied by this problem of light and darkness as he worked on this series, and expressed his thoughts on it in White
Darkness, the culminating picture of the exhibition. After the close of the exhibition, all of the works were purchased by theHara Museum.

[Exhibition Details]
Title: Yasumasa Morimura – Rembrandt Room Revisited
Dates: October 12 (Saturday) – December 23 (Monday / national holiday), 2013
Organized by: Hara Museum of Contemporary Art 4-7-25 Kitashinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 140-0001
Tel: 03-3445-0651 E-mail: info@haramuseum.or.jp Museum website: http://www.haramuseum.or.jp Mobile site:
http://mobile.haramuseum.or.jp http://www.art-it.asia/u/HaraMuseum (blog) Twitter: http://twitter.com/haramuseum(twitter)
Hours: 11:00 am – 5:00 pm, Wednesdays until 8:00 pm (last entry 30 minutes before closing)Closed: Mondays (open on October 14, November 4 and December 23), October 15 and November 5Admission: General 1,000 yen; Students 700 yen (high school and university) or 500 yen (elementary and junior high); Freefor Hara Museum members and students through high school every Saturday during the school term; 100 yen discount perperson for groups of 20 or more.
Directions: 5 minutes by taxi or 15 minutes on foot from JR Shinagawa Station (Takanawa exit); or from the same station takethe No.96 bus, get off at the first stop (Gotenyama), and walk 3 minutes.

[Artist Biography]
1951
Born in Osaka
1978
Graduated with B.A. degree from the Kyoto City University of Art
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2013
Yasumasa Morimura: Theater of the Self, The Warhol, Pittsburgh
Las Meninas Renacen de Noche (In Praise of Velásquez : Handmaidens Reborn in the Night),
The Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo
2012
A Study of Yasumasa Morimura, Mitsubishi-jisho ARTIUM, Fukuoka
Moriennale / Imitating Art History, Takamatsu City Museum of Art, Kagawa; Fukuyama Museum of Art,
Hiroshima; Shizuoka City Museum of Art, Shizuoka; Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, Kitakyushu;
Riverwalk Gallery, Fukuoka; Takaoka Art Museum,Toyama
2011
A Requiem: Art on Top of the Battlefield, Galeria Juana de Aizquru, Madrid
Economic Portrait and Others, BLD Gallery, Tokyo
The Power of the Others: Microcosm of Yasumasa Morimura, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe
A Requiem: Art on Top of the Battlefield, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo; Toyota Municipal
Museum of Art, Aichi; Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima; Hyogo Prefectural Museum ofArt, Hyogo
2010
A Requiem: Another Story, ShugoArts, Tokyo2009
Sickness Unto Beauty – Me As Actress, Iwami Art Museum, Shimane
2008
Requiem Por El Siglo XX, Galeria Juana de Aizquru, Madrid
Yasumasa Morimura- Requiem for the XX Century: Twilight of the Turbulent Gods, Galerie Thaddaeus
Ropac, Paris2007
Yasumasa Morimura, Bi [bi:] – Class, Be Quiet, Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto; Yokohama Museum ofArt, Yokohama

2006
2005
2003
2002
2001

2000

1998
1996
1994
1993
1992
1990
1989
1988
1986
1984

Yasumasa Morimura – Requiem for the XX Century, Twilight of the Turbulent Gods, Galleria di Piazza San Marco,
La Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice; Luhring Augustine Gallery, New York
Yasumasa Morimura. One Artist's Theatre, Gary Tatintsian Gallery, Moscow
Seasons of Passion / A Requiem: Chapter 1, ShugoArts, TokyoLos Nuevos Caprichos, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris; Luhring Augustine, New York; Galeria Juana de Aizpuru,Madrid; ShugoArts, Tokyo
Yasumasa Morimura, Barco Negro on the Table, MEM Gallery, Osaka
Yasumasa Morimura: Story of M’s Portraits with a 25m Diorama, Kawasaki City Museum, Kawasaki
An Inner Dialogue with Frida Kahlo, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac,Paris; Luhring Augustine, New YorkMorimura: A Hundred Polaroids, RICE Gallery by G2; ShugoArts, Tokyo
Yasumasa Morimura: Story of M’s Portraits, Museum ″Eki″, Kyoto
Art History: Yasumasa Morimura, Telephonica Foundation Exhibit Space, Spain
The Time with No Name, The Self with No Name, The Art Center of Academic Resources, Chulalongkorn
University, Bangkok
Yasumasa Morimura: Self Portrait as Art History, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo; The National
Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto; Marugame Genichiro Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Kagawa
Yasumasa Morimura: From Van Gogh to Marilyn, Satani Gallery, Tokyo; Luhling Augustine Gallery, New York
Yasumasa Morimura - Rembrandt Room, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
Psychoborg: Madonna, Michael, Morimura, The Ginza Art Space, Tokyo
The Sickness unto Beauty vol.1-5, Nishida Gallery, Nara
9 Visages, Foundation Cartier pour L′Art contemporain, Jouy-en-Josas, Paris
Yasumasa Morimura Sculptures, Shugo Satani Art Room, Tokyo
Options 44, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago; The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Daughter of Art History, Sagacho Exhibit Space, Tokyo
Criticism and the Lover, Mohly Gallery, Osaka
Mata ni, Te, Gallery NW House, Tokyo; ON Gallery, Osaka
Mon Amour Violet et Autres, Gallery Haku, Osaka
Hiramatsu Gallery, Osaka

Selected Group Exhibitions
2012
Double Vision: Contemporary Art from Japan, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow
2011
Pictorial Theory of Evolution, Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts, Tochigi
2009
Hundred Stories about Love, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
2008
Busan Biennale, Busan Museum of Modern Art, Gwangalli Beach, APEC Naru Park, etc, Korea
Into the Atomic Sunshine, Daikanyama Hillside Forum, Tokyo
Still / Motion: Liquid Crystal Painting, Mie Prefectural Art Museum, Mie; The National Museum of Art, Osaka;
Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo
2004
Marcel Duchamp and the 20th Century Art, The National Museum of Art, Osaka; Yokohama Museum of Art,Yokohama
20th Anniversary Exhibition: The Copy Age – From Duchamp through Warhol to Morimura, The Museum ofModern Art, Shiga
2002
Emotional Site, Sagacho Shokuryo Building, Tokyo
Theater of Our Lives, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Hyogo
2001
Yasumasa Morimura, Sawako Goda, Kochi Prefectural Museum, Kochi
1998
Technontherapy, Nakanoshima Central Town Hall, Osaka
1996
Hugo Boss Prize 1996, Guggenheim Museum Soho Annex, New York
10th Sydney Biennale, Sydney
1994
Cocide y Crudo, Reina Sofia National Art Center, Madrid
Of the Human Condition, Spiral Hall, Tokyo; Ashiya City Museum of Art & History, Hyogo
1992
Homage to Spanish Still Life by Yasumasa Morimura & Miran Fukuda, Nagoya City Art Museum, Nagoya
Post- Human, Musee d′Art de Pully, Lausanne; Castello di Rivoli Museo d′Arte Contemporanea, Turin; Deste
Foundation for Contemporary Art, Athens; Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Hamburg
1991
A Cabinet of Signs: Contemporary Art from Post Modern Japan, Tate Gallery / Liverpool; White Chapel Art,London; Malmo Kunsthall, Sweden
Art and Daily Life, National Museum of Art Osaka, Osaka
1990
Culture and Commentary: An Eighties Perspectives, Hirshhorn Museum Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.
1989
Against Nature; Japanese Art in the Eighties, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; Akron ArtMuseum, Ohio; MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle; The Contemporary Arts
Center, Cincinnati; Grey Art Gallery and Study Center; New York University Art Collection, New York;
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Texas; ICA Nagoya, Nagoya
1988
East meets West: Japanese and Italian Art Today/LA 88, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles
Faces of Men, Gallery Haku, Osaka
43th La Biennale di Venezia, Aperto ‘88, Venice1987
1986
1985
1984

Art Now ‘88, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Hyogo
Photographic Aspect of Japanese Art Today, Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts, Tochigi
Yes Art / Deluxe, Sagacho Exhibit Space, Tokyo; Gallery Haku, Osaka
Art Different-Scene Differentible de peinture, Gallery Haku, Osaka
Smile with Radical Will, Galerie 16, Kyoto
Can′t You See We Are Not Reticent?, Gallery [vju:], Osaka

Selected Recent Publications
Self-Portrait as Actress: Yasumasa Morimura, Nigensha Co., Ltd, 2010Manebu Art History (Imitating Art History), Akaaka Art Publishing Inc., 2010
Rojian Sensei no Anpontan, Shinshusha Publishing, 2010
Conversations About Requiem / Considering the 20th Century, Iwanami Shoten Publishers, 2011
Recent Awards
Kyoto Cultural Merit Award, 2006
Minister of Education Award for Fine Arts, 2007
52nd Mainichi Art Award, 2011
Photographic Society of Japan Award, 2011
24th Kyoto Artistic Culture Prize, 2011
Medal with Purple Ribbon, Autumn 2011

[Images for Publication]
Please include the following credit along with the captions below. Information related to material and size may be omitted
in case of space limitations.
Please do not trim or alter the images. Putting text over the images is also prohibited.

[2]

[3]

[4]

[1] Majestic Self-portrait 1640, 1994 color photograph on canvas, 60 x 50 cm ⓒYasumasa Morimura[2] Self-Portrait as the Prodigal Son 1636, 1994 color photograph on canvas, 77 x 63 cm ⓒYasumasa Morimura[3] Portrait of the Family - Wife, 1994 color photograph on canvas, 120 x 100 cm ⓒYasumasa Morimura[4] Face Study III, 1994 black and white photograph, 25 x 20 cm ⓒYasumasa Morimura

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Tel: +81-3-3280-0679 Fax: +81-3-5791-7630 E-mail: press@haramuseum.or.jp
4-7-25 Kitashinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 140-0001