There are several points at which the conventional language of art criticism breaks down. The French painter, Henri Le Sidaner, the obscure but distinguished subject of an exhibition at the likewise relatively obscure but distinguished Museum of Modern Art Saitama, is one of these. ...

Izu Photo Museum Closes March 4 One of the main reasons painting moved away from the representational and figurative in the 20th century was because of the invention of photography, the previous century. But now photography, too, seems to be moving away from the ...

With the new year in sight and 2011 about to slip into the annals of history, the defining event of this year, the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, is now starting to recede into the distance. Though for those directly touched by ...

In his popular anecdotal encyclopedia of Japan, “Things Japanese,” the 19th-century British Japanologist, Basil Hall Chamberlain, included the comment that “the nude is seen in Japan but not looked at.” This reflected a reality in 1890, when the book was published: Nudity was not ...

In an era in which we have seen communication and human interaction revolutionized by new technology, it may well seem that the “medium really is the message.” But just how far can this alliteratively attractive slogan really be stretched? Those issues and questions now ...

On first appraisal, it might seem that the organizers have brought the wrong Maja to Japan for the exhibition “Goya: Lights and Shadows” at Tokyo’s National Museum of Western Art. Of course, it would have been best to have included both versions of the ...

Like any prominent, PR-savvy architect these days, Tadao Ando likes to present himself as a sensitive sort, one who adjusts his architectural approach to harmonize with the unique features and characteristics of each local site. The latest exhibition of his architectural models, drawings and ...

Architecture isn’t rock ‘n’ roll, so I’ve always had my suspicions of any architect whose fame seems to be on the inflated side. Although Arata Isozaki is something of a superstar in the world of Japanese architecture — and has also written interesting and ...

The avant-garde probably never looked as moderate and conservative as it did in 1888, when a group of young, bearded French painters founded a group known as “Les Nabis.” The facial hair was not incidental either, helping to give the group its moniker: “Nabi” ...

Most of us understand bridges to be structures that help us keep our feet dry. However, in the latest exhibition at the Mitsui Memorial Museum, “The Bridge in Japanese Art: From Ama-no-Hashidate to Nihonbashi,” it turns out that we’ve only been partly right. The ...

How many of the artworks being made today will stand the test of time and still be appreciated more than 2,000 years in the future — as the sculptures in “The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greece” exhibition are today? I would say almost none, ...

Women at times are like canvases. You see them on the trains, painting their faces, or else walking around wearing intriguing outfits, usually somewhat poker-faced. Consequently, the thought keeps occurring that perhaps they want to be looked at rather in the same way that ...