C.B. Liddell - The Japan Times

Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

Meta

C.B. Liddell

For C.B. Liddell's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Aug 11, 2015

There's a residual energy to Cai Guo-Qiang's explosive works

Japanese artist Taro Okamoto once said, "Art is an explosion." This was despite the fact that his own works were carefully planned and developed, as the exhibition "Taro Okamoto's Paintings: From Impulse to Realization" at the Taro Okamoto Museum of Art made clear back in 2006. Okamoto's famous dictum, however, literally applies to the New-York-based Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang, who is famous for using gunpowder explosions to distribute colors and other effects across his expansive canvases.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Aug 11, 2015

The spooky side of Sanyutei Encho

For all sorts of reasons, summer is the season of ghosts in Japan. Accordingly, The University Art Museum in Tokyo is presenting an exhibition of work connected to Meiji Era (1867-1912) storyteller Sanyutei Encho (1839-1900). Encho practised the art of rakugo, a traditional and minimalist Japanese style of storytelling, in which a seated narrator typically uses only a fan and a hand towel as props.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Jul 14, 2015

Pop culture show may be a bit off game

On paper, "Manga * Anime * Games From Japan," currently running at The National Art Center, Tokyo, sounds like a great show. The exhibition overview certainly makes a big pitch:

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Jul 7, 2015

Copies can help us see Leonardo da Vinci's original

Many historical exhibitions tend to be collections of whatever the museum in question can get their hands on, loosely united around a period, a theme, or the name of a famous artist. The exhibition that has just finished at the Bunkamura "Money and Beauty: Botticelli and the Renaissance in Florence" was rather like that. If done well, this approach can still provide an entertaining and interesting show, but much more satisfying is a concept like that behind the show at the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

May 19, 2015

Experience was not the mother of wisdom

It's something of a truism that the life of an artist heavily influences his or her work. No exhibition makes this clearer than "Utrillo & Valadon" at the Seiji Togo Memorial Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Museum of Art, which pairs the art of Maurice Utrillo, the famous painter of Parisian cityscapes, and his mother, Suzanne Valadon, famous as a model and an artist in her own right.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

May 12, 2015

The Louvre's spin on art history

The futuristic-looking National Art Center Tokyo (NACT) seems like a rather unusual venue for an exhibition of mainly 17th- and 18th-century European art sourced from Paris's famous Louvre Museum. But while the Louvre's collections are very much rooted in the past, the French institution has also had one eye firmly fixed on the future for a long time. When you visit the Louvre in Paris, modernity is signalled by I. M. Pei's famous glass pyramid in the courtyard of the museum. Here in Tokyo it is hinted at by the choice of venue for this exhibition, "Louvre Museum: Genre Painting — Scenes from Daily Life."

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

May 5, 2015

The Renaissance banked on art

All exhibitions that deal with the distant past inevitably fall into the trap of anachronism to some degree. This is especially true when they try to present a strong storyline that appeals to modern audiences, as the present exhibition at Bunkamura The Museum does with "Money and Beauty: Botticelli and the Renaissance in Florence."

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Apr 14, 2015

The honeymoon phase of Japan and the West

Often, when two cultures meet, it can be very messy and lead to a lot of unpleasantness. The continuing inability of the West and Islam to understand each other suggests itself as a convenient example. This kind of conflict often boils down to a question of who will be master and who will be man, with the benefits of synergy and learning from each other lost or reduced.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Apr 7, 2015

Art's 20th-century identity crisis

The 20th century is rather like the teenager who never grew up — a century that saw itself as perpetually young, as the "modernist" culmination of history rather than part of the historical process. In short, an age guilty of "chronocentricism." But, like all the other centuries, culled and packaged by the relentless march of time, it, too, is receding into the past, becoming covered with the same rust and dust as the rest.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Mar 26, 2015

There's no need to squint at the work of Guercino

History has not been kind to Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, the Italian Baroque painter who is better known by his artistic nickname, Guercino — "the Squinter."

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Mar 19, 2015

Impressions of spiritual intimacy

There are two theories about post-impressionist art. One is that it was a continuation of the modernist spirit of the impressionists, with the application of ever-more scientific principles of color and light to the depiction of objects. The other is that post-impressionism was a re-assertion of an artistic tradition of symbolism and a stylistic move away from naturalism and realism.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Mar 12, 2015

Art Fair Tokyo seeks to educate

Art Fair Tokyo, the city's premier art showcase, is always a pleasure to experience, and I'm sure this year's event, to be held March 20-22 at the Tokyo International Forum, will have much to offer. But part of the fun of following Art Fair Tokyo is observing the constant struggle the event has to get into its groove.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Mar 5, 2015

The flickering of Japan's contemporary art

Art used to be about what you could see, but now, thanks to a more "conceptual" approach, it is often about what cannot be seen. Except the artist still has to demonstrate in some way what it is that can't be seen — in other words, to make it visible.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Feb 19, 2015

Neo-impressionism: color-coded familiarities

The term "neo-impressionism" suggests a sequel to impressionism and, just like with movie sequels, there is a faint lowering of expectations. But this is entirely the wrong way to approach "Neo-Impressionism: from Light to Color" at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Feb 12, 2015

How art deco stripped nudity of eroticism

When the Teien Museum of Art reopened late last year, after a period of refurbishment and expansion, the exhibition held was no real test for either the main building or the newly added annex. The art of Rei Naito was so minimalist that it seemed as though it was hardly there.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Feb 5, 2015

Paris' melancholic life of the party

The painter Jules Pascin was the epitome of the cosmopolitan, bohemian artist who came to define Paris of the 1920s. The latest exhibition at the Panasonic Shiodome Museum looks at the life and art of this painter, who was an important feature of the Parisian art scene until his suicide in 1930 at the age of 45.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Jan 29, 2015

Guiding the landscape of abstract painting

As the name suggests, the main concept behind the "Quintet" series of exhibitions that the Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Museum of Art started running last year is to bring together five artists whose art harmonizes well, just like a musical quintet.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Jan 22, 2015

Jiro Oyamada's dark side exposes his highlights

When it comes to selecting "tortured artists" — those driven to create from the deep wells of their souls by immense suffering — the 20th-century Japanese painter Jiro Oyamada must seem like a shoo-in. The Fuchu Art Museum, in the western suburbs of Tokyo, is now celebrating the 100th anniversary of the artist's birth because he had a close connection to the area before his mysterious disappearance in 1971.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Jan 8, 2015

There's method in artistic 'madness'

Jiro Takamatsu is not easy to understand. He was an idiosyncratic avant-garde artist who worked with a variety of materials to create arcane art that expressed philosophical ideas. This is immediately off-putting to some and intriguing to others. However, the exhibition "Takamatsu Jiro: Mysteries" at the Museum of Modern Art Tokyo is designed so that most visitors will be able to find something to take from it.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Dec 25, 2014

From tradition to trash: Tokyo's art in 2014

This year has been a memorable one for art exhibitions at museums in Tokyo, with a surprisingly diverse array of shows and events, ancient and modern, foreign and domestic, metropolitan and provincial.

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.

Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Cultural properties:A Fujiya Hotel insider’s view

Cultural properties:A Fujiya Hotel insider’s view

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

international-reports