Presentation 4

An unprecedented exploration of Japanese Art at the Exhibition,Marcel Duchamp and Japanese Art
Mr. Matsushima Masato
Head of Planning, National Center for the Promotion of Cultural Properties / Tokyo National Museum
ProfileMasato Matsushima is involved with permanent and temporaryexhibitions at Tokyo National Museum that relate to his research in thefield of the History of Japanese Painting. He has curated HASEGAWATOHAKU: 400th Memorial Retrospective (Tokyo National Museum, Kyoto
National Museum, 2010), Remaking Tradition: Modern Art of Japan fromthe Tokyo National Museum (Cleveland Museum of Art, USA, 2014),
Kuniyoshi & Kunisada (Bunkamura Museum, Kobe City Museum,
Nagoya/Boston Museum of Fine Arts, 2016), and other exhibitions.
At the National Center for the Promotion of Cultural Properties hehas been involved in planning interactive exhibitions such as Diving intoScreen Paintings: A New Way to Experience Japanese Art (2017) and TNM
and Art Tunes! Present: Becoming Japanese Art (2018), as well as
reproducing artworks and making high-resolution video records of them.

Held from October 2 to December 9, 2018, Marcel
Duchamp and Japanese Art (Fig. 1 and 2) was a collaborativeexhibition project between the Tokyo National Museum(hereinafter ‘TNM’) and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The
project comprised two exhibitions. The first was The EssentialDuchamp, an international travelling exhibition planned andoverseen by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. This introduced
the creative activities of Duchamp by showcasing his works
including over 150 oil paintings and ‘readymade’ objects fromthe Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Duchamp collection. The
second was Rediscovering Japan through Duchamp. ThisFig.1: A poster for the special exhibition
used items from TNM’s collection to explore the meaning andaesthetic value of Japanese art, which was created within very Marcel Duchamp and Japanese Art.
different social conditions to those of the West, while proposing
new ways of appreciating the beauty of this art.
The relation between TNM and the Philadelphia Museumof Art dates back to the Centennial International Exhibition,
held in Philadelphia in 1876. TNM also helped with various
works related to Japan’s cultural properties when thePhiladelphia Museum of Art organized exhibitions of Japanese
art recently. It was against the backdrop of these ongoing
relations that the Philadelphia Museum of Art proposed holdinga Duchamp exhibition across Asia in 2018 to coincide with the50th anniversary of Duchamp’s passing, with TNM also
formally approached about the idea. TNM does not usually Fig.2: A fiyer for the special exhibition
hold exhibitions of ‘modern art.’ As such, TNM agreed to the Marcel Duchamp and Japanese Art.
proposal on the condition that any exhibition would also beheld in conjunction with an exhibition of Japanese art. Since the Meiji era, the aesthetic values ofWestern art have formed the basis for the appreciation of Japanese art. However, we believed anexhibition tracing Duchamp’s artistic footprints would first of all provide an opportunity to appreciateJapanese art in a new way. Speaking frankly, we believed an appreciation of Duchamp’s work could
help contextualize the conventional ways of looking at Japanese art nowadays. Hence the title tothe second exhibition: Rediscovering Japan through Duchamp. The Philadelphia Museum of Art also
agreed with our idea of holding a parallel exhibition of Japanese art, with Tokyo the only place tofeature this two-exhibition format. Exhibition 1 (Fig. 3) was organized by Matthew Affron, a curator
at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, with TNM staff contributingideas about the actual installations, floor designs and graphicdesigns, for example. In this way, the exhibition fused thecuratorial ideas of our two museums. Mr. Affron’s kind andthoroughgoing explanations contributed greatly to facilitating
an understanding of Duchamp’s art. We prepared chapter
and exhibit explanations in Japanese, English, Chinese andKorean, with experts from both museums also conducting indepth discussions about environmental conditions at thevenue. Exhibition 2 (Fig. 4) examined how Japanese art wasshaped by different social values from those that prevailed inFig. 3: Exhibition 1 - The Essential Duchamp
the West. Through themes such as visual impacts, realism,
and the passage of time, the exhibition aimed to provide
visitors with new ways of appreciating Japanese art.
In recent years, many special exhibitions at TNM havebeen held in partnership with media companies; however, thisexhibition was an exception, with TNM providing the funds
itself, mainly through entrance fees and other self-generatedfunds. With support from the Terra Foundation for American
Art, we also held lectures and other educational activities.
Several companies also provided materials and equipment
for the exhibits. The insurance costs were also lowered
substantially thanks to the national indemnity program run byFig. 4: Exhibition 2 - Rediscovering Japanthrough Duchamp
the Agency for Cultural Affairs.
This independence meant we could also try several new
initiatives. For example, as both exhibitions only featured exhibits from our respective collections,
we could permit photography throughout the entire venue, which resulted in numerous visitors
posting about the exhibitions on social media. We also set up a bespoke website and Twitter accountand produced exhibition mascots and goods, for example, and we posted videos featuringcontemporary artists and creators up on SNS. Furthermore, rather than our usual audio guides, wetried to make the exhibits more enjoyable through our experimental ‘Duchamp Ogiri’ guide. As aresult of these initiatives, we managed to attract many 20- to 30-year-olds, a demographic who wereperhaps not particularly aware of Duchamp. As such, the exhibitions were very significant in terms
of promoting an understanding of Duchamp’s art in Japan. The exhibitions were also very wellreceived among artists deeply influenced by Duchamp.
Over 80,000 people visited in the end, with the exhibitions providing a rare chance to encounterthe voluminous Duchamp collection outside the grounds of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. By
comparing these works to Japanese art, the exhibitions also encouraged people to ‘think about’rather than just ‘look at’ art. I believe they served a valuable role in rousing the intellectual curiosityof many people.