One of the first things I did in Tokyo was visit the National Museum of Modern Art. It’s close
One of the first things I did in Tokyo was visit the National Museum of Modern Art. It’s close to where I’m staying, and soaking up some modern Japanese art is high on my list. First, I checked out a temporary exhibit on Francis Bacon. I used to really dig Bacon back in high school, but had since written him off as sort of juvenile. Although I still think his early work uses a lot of immature, gothy themes, this retrospective gave me a renewed respect for the artist. It was nice to get a glimpse into his process through a wide variety of unfinished works as well as video of him in the studio. Additionally, I realized how much he evolved as an artist in his later works. Whereas in his earlier paintings he seemed to obfuscate pieces of a figure just because he couldn’t draw something complex like a face or a foot, in his later work he had better mastery over his craft, and used obfuscation as a tool rather than some immature cop-out. The permanent collection is also pretty good in the National Museum. It’s mostly Japanese stuff, which I haven’t been exposed to very much beyond the cliché classical stuff (scrolls and Tsunamis). One highlight for me were a couple of 19th century sculptors who were stylistically similar to Rodin, named Ogiwara Morie and Shinkai Taketaro. After checking out the permanent collection, I moved onto the other temporary exhibit: a look at the design effort for the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo. This exhibition was an absolute joy for me, since the main reason I came to Japan was to study design. The simplicity of the Japanese aesthetic is really exemplary, and their use of minimalism is beyond reproach. The Japanese aesthetic got kind of played out in Western design fairly recently, but it’s still something I want to study and learn from (and the Western stuff never really got it right). Anyway, I couldn’t take any pictures in here, with the exception of this one I got off before being warned: This design effort was really well done, and there were some really interesting aspects of it. One highlight was some packaging for postcards, with the cards arranged in a spiral. Additionally, on the more bizarre end of the spectrum, there were two sets of Olympic-branded cigarettes: Olympia and Peace. Olympia Cigarettes from 1952 Oslo Olypmics (I couldn’t find a picture of the Tokyo packaging). Finally, I headed over to the crafts museum, which you should probably skip. There isn’t anything too interesting there, with the exception of the outdoor sculpture (pictured at the top of this post), and some weird figurines of chubby naked kids. Blog about Japan? Share your blog with more Japan enthusiasts. via on -- source link
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