Art Topics

Gregor Schneider: temporary structures that resist conformity

Jul 10, 2013

Gregor Schneider: temporary structures that resist conformity

by Stuart Munro

Seemingly out of nowhere, German artist Gregor Schneider exhibits major work at the recently opened TOLOT/heuristic Shinonome complex. His solo show brings together “It’s All Rheydt” (Kolkata, 2011) and photography from his largest undertaking, “Haus u r,” a house in his hometown of Rheydt ...

Propaganda: artifice by design

Jul 8, 2013

Propaganda: artifice by design

by Roland Elliott Brown

The word “propaganda” derives its modern use from the name of a 17th-century Roman Catholic institution, the Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, or Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. Established during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648, a sectarian conflict that devastated Europe ...

The 'floating world' that drifted to the West

Jul 3, 2013

The 'floating world' that drifted to the West

by C.B. Liddell

The main pleasure of any extensive ukiyo-e (woodblock print) exhibition, like the “Floating World” show now on at the Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, is the evocation of the unique civilization that underlies this particular slab of global modernity. Among the sleek office buildings of the ...

Art that bloomed with the Feinbergs

Jun 27, 2013

Art that bloomed with the Feinbergs

by C.B. Liddell

As a simple matter of economic convenience, some of the best art collections in the world started out going against established taste. By avoiding what was already highly valued — and therefore expensive — collectors could build up impressive collections that could then help ...

What provoked Japan's contemporary photography?

Jun 27, 2013

What provoked Japan's contemporary photography?

by Mio Yamada

In 1968, as the world reeled from The Prague Spring, the turbulent union and student strikes in France, and the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Japan, like so many other nations, found itself in the midst of social unrest. Citizens questioned ...

Everyday goods: the Japanese art of convenience

Jun 27, 2013

Everyday goods: the Japanese art of convenience

by C.B. Liddell

“Mingei” translates as “folk art” and is connected to objects that are made or used by ordinary people on an everyday basis. Usually this evokes hand-crafted objects, such as ceramics, baskets, items of woodwork, etc. As such, the term is evocative of the era ...

Are we all blinded by our sense of beauty?

Jun 20, 2013

Are we all blinded by our sense of beauty?

by Stuart Munro

Sophie Calle is an enigma. She is an artist, writer, photographer and filmmaker yet doesn’t work exclusively in any of these areas. She has become famous for her work in photography but her objects and later films have drawn equal attention — work that ...

The collector who saw the fine print

Jun 13, 2013

The collector who saw the fine print

by Yoko Haruhara

The Nezu Museum is currently showing “Ceramics and Ukiyo-e Masterpieces from the Hagi Uragami Museum,” an exhibition of outstanding artworks collected over the years by the entrepreneur Toshiro Uragami, who donated them to the Hagi Uragami Museum in Yamaguchi Prefecture in 1996. How did ...

Observing the present and past is to see into the future

Jun 13, 2013

Observing the present and past is to see into the future

by Stuart Munro

For the past 48 years, Daido Moriyama has followed his photographic instinct, drawn to subjects whose characters appear as vibrant as they are tragic while leaving the question of which for us to decide. The act of exhibiting, through the unraveling of images, has ...

Making sense of medieval avatars

Jun 13, 2013

Making sense of medieval avatars

by C.B. Liddell

The Western model of sexual equality — one that drives women to focus on careers but also contributes to lower birthrates — may not be an entirely unmixed blessing, but the roots of the West’s gender attitudes run deep and stem from some interesting ...

Japan's Gutai artists celebrated like never before

Jun 9, 2013

Japan's Gutai artists celebrated like never before

by Bronwyn Mahoney

“Do what no one has done before,” was the rallying cry that Jiro Yoshihara, founder of the postwar Japanese art group the Gutai Art Association, demanded of his fellow members. A work by one of the group’s important painters, Kazuo Shiraga, fulfilled the edict ...