News Release
ATZ21029̲E̲E

October 29, 2021
Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation

Chasing the Horizon: 1952-2022
Ancient, Impressionist, and Contemporary Art

January 29 [Sat.] ‒ April 10 [Sun.],2022①

FUJISHIMA Takeji, Orientalism, 1924

② FUJISHIMA Takeji, Black Fan, 1908-09,
Important Cultural Property

The Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation (Director: Ishibashi Hiroshi), presents Chasing the Horizon

1952-2022. Ancient, Impressionist, and Contemporary Art.
In 2020, the Artizon Museum newly opened under its new name after being closed for five years. Ishibashi
Shojiro, the founder of our predecessor organization, the Bridgestone Museum of Art, was a successful
entrepreneur who built a collection focused on modern Western-style painting by Japanese artists andWestern art, and established the museum. After the Ishibashi Foundation was instituted in 1956, thecollection and he management of the museum was handed over to the Foundation. As well as managing
the Foundation, Kanichiro, Shojiro!s son, collected abstract art with a focus on postwar France. After
Kanichiro!s death, his heirs donated his personal collection and Shojiro!s collection of antique Japanese andAsian art to the Ishibashi Foundation, a gift that represented a huge step forward for the collection. Under
the management of the Ishibashi Foundation, the Artizon Museum continuing to expand the collectionand broaden the range of its activities. The museum is also embarking on new projects such as the Jam

Sessions, which are joint performances by the collection and contemporary artists.
This exhibition presents the trajectory of the 70 years of the Artizon Museum since 1952, when theBridgestone Museum of Art opened, through approximately 170 works of art and documentation. We also
reflect on our history through posters for past exhibitions, records of the Saturday Lectures, which havebeen held since the museum opened, an art film series, Shojiro!s journals of his travels in the West, andother archive materials.

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Exhibition Highlights
１．Looking back at 70 years of the Ishibashi Foundation Collection
Today the Ishibashi Foundation!s collection includes approximately 2,800 works of art. This exhibition
traces the history of the collection by introducing about 170 representative works that demonstrate how
the museum has shaped its wide-ranging collection of ancient art, Western art, Western-style painting byJapanese artists, twentieth century abstract painting and modern art, as well as antique Japanese and Asianart.

２．The Tale of Heiji scrolls, Tokiwa vol., Important Cultural Property
A new acquisition on display for the first time, this 16-meter-long picture scroll depicts the final scenes ofThe Tale of Heiji. Displaying the characteristics of Yamato-e, the scroll was produced during the Kamakura
period, in the thirteenth century, and tells a dramatic story featuring Taira no Kiyomori, Tokiwa Gozen, andher son Ushiwaka.

３. Masterpiece by Zao Wou-Ki shown for the first time in 14 years
Originally from China, the painter Zao Wou-Ki pioneered an original style of painting that merges East andWest and cemented his position in the postwar Parisian art world. Untitled (1982), a masterpiece painted
in ink on a length of Chinese paper exceeding 3.7 meters, will be shown for the first time in 14 years.
Ishibashi Kanichiro, former chairman of the Ishibashi Foundation, admired Zao Wou-Ki and built acollection of his works. This painting is from that collection. A thank-you letter sent by Zao and otherdocuments attest to the depth of the exchanges between the two men.

４．Archival materials on display
In addition to a display of more than one hundred exhibition posters dating back to the inauguralexhibition at the opening of the Bridgestone Museum of Art in 1952, we will also show documentary films
featuring the artists Maeda Seison and Sakamoto Hanjiro in the 1950s and the early 1960s, as well as
records of more than 2,300 Saturday Lectures. Those lectures have included invaluable presentations bymany art historians, famous intellectuals and artists such as Mushanokoji Saneatsu, Okamoto Taro.

Composition of the Exhibition
Part 1: Birth of the Artizon Museum
In Part 1, we introduce recent acquisitions as well as works added to the collection as a result of our Jam

Sessions, joint performances by the collection and contemporary artists. In addition to enhancing the corecollection of Impressionists and Western-style painting by Japanese artists with works such as Orientalism
by Fujishima Takeji, the Artizon Museum has broadened its focus to collect art from the early twentiethcentury to the present. Visitors will be able to enjoy posters of past exhibitions and records of the SaturdayLectures, which have been held since the opening of the Bridgestone Museum of Art.

Jam Session: The Ishibashi
Foundation Collection x Tomoko Konoike
Tomoko Konoike: FLIP installation view
Left: ③(2020) ©Tomoko Konoike& Partners

Photo by Nacása

Right: ④ Joan MITCHELL, Blue Michigan,
1961 © Estate of Joan Mitchell

2/4Part 2: Journey to a New Horizon
After the death of Ishibashi Kanichiro in 1998, his heirs donated his personal collection to the Ishibashi
Foundation, a gift that achieved a huge expansion of the collection. Kanichiro!s collection of postwar
French abstract art, including works by Zao Wou-Ki, is an important link between Shojiro!s collection andthe collection as it exists today. The exhibition will also present collections of Japanese and Chinese
paintings and writing, pottery, and other items that Kanichiro worked tirelessly to make available to thepublic, as well as archival films of artists in their studios produced by the Film Committee, which was set
up in 1953.

⑤ The Tale of Heiji scrolls, Tokiwa vol.(detail),
Kamakura period, 13th century, Important Cultural
Property⑥ ZAO Wou-Ki, Untitled, 1982
©2021 by ProLitteris, Zurich & JASPAR, Tokyo C3621⑦ ZAO Wou-Ki, 07.06.85, 1985
©2021 by ProLitteris, Zurich & JASPAR, Tokyo C3621

Part 3: History of the Bridgestone Museum of Art
The Ishibashi Foundation collection is based on the personal collection of Ishibashi Shojiro, which wasdonated to the Foundation in 1961. Shojiro built a collection that focused on Western art and Western-style
paintings by Japanese artists and made the works available to the general public by establishing theBridgestone Museum of Art. On visits to numerous museums in the West, his interests also broadened toinclude ancient art, which he continued to collect after the art museum had opened. This part of theexhibition introduces the collection as it was in the early days of the museum, as well as Shojiro!s journals
and other documentation of his travels in the West.

⑧Claude MONET, Twilight, Venice, c. 1908

⑨ Greece, Venus, Hellenistic period,
323-30 B.C.

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Exhibition Overview
Exhibition title:

Chasing the Horizon: 1952-2022
Ancient, Impressionist, and Contemporary Art

Organized by

Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation

Venue:

Artizon Museum, 6,5,4F Galleries

Exhibition period:

January 29 [Sat.] ‒ April 10 [Sun.], 2022

Opening hours:

10:00 ‒ 18:00 (until 20:00 on Fridays)

Closed:Mondays (except March 21), March 22

Admission (incl.tax):

Designated entry system by date and time

*Last entry 30 minutes before closing.

(Online booking starts from November 29, 2021)
Online ticket: 1,200 yen
Same day ticket (on sale at museum): 1,500 yen
Students: Free entry (Advance online booking required.)*Same day tickets on sale at the museum are available only for time slotsthat have not reached full capacity.
*Advance booking is not required for children up to junior high school age.
Curators:

TADOKORO Natsuko, HEIMA Rika, KUROSAWA Yoshiko*The exhibition details are subject to change without notice.
Artizon Museum
1-7-2 Kyobashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0031, Japan
Tel. Domestic: 050-5541-8600 International: 047-316-2772 (Hello Dial)
https://www.artizon.museum/en/
Directions: 5 minutes on foot from JR Tokyo Station (Yaesu Central Exit); Tokyo Metro Ginza Line Kyobashi
Station (No.6, 7 Exit); Tokyo Metro Ginza Line, Tozai Line, Toei Asakusa Line Nihombashi Station (B1 Exit)

Images for Press Use
Please choose either image ① or ② if you would like to publish only a single image.
Include image credits as provided. Do not trim images or overlay them with text.
■ Please download images ① to ③, ⑤, ⑧ and ⑨ from the site below.
Download images for press use here:
https://www.artpr.jp/artizon/hajimari* The work in image ③ is still subject to copyright protection, but we have obtained permission
to use it to promote this exhibition.
The copyright notice is required in addition to the artist’s name and the name of the work.
* Please contact the Public Relations Group regarding the use of images ④, ⑥ and ⑦, which arestill subject to copyright protection.

For inquiries about this press release:
Artizon Museum Public Relations GroupE-mail: publicity@artizon.jp TEL: 080-2448-0444 (Direct)
1-7-2 Kyobashi Chuo-ku Tokyo 104-0031

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