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May 02, 2024
 

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Jeff Hammond
For Jeff Hammond's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 5, 2011
From within the 'outsider' came a wealth of imagination
"American Innocence, Welcome To The Realms of the Unreal" at the Laforet Museum brings together 64 paintings and some personal objects of the "outsider artist" Henry Darger, who was born in Chicago in 1892.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 11, 2011
The Centre Pompidou brings the surreal to Tokyo
In its passage from the art world into everyday speech, the word "surreal" has ended up as mere shorthand for the bizarre and the unusual. But it originally referred to something deeper.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 25, 2011
Asian art challenges Western museums' way of thinking
Art from Asia has enjoyed increased global interest in the past few decades, which has brought major changes to the way in which the art scene now views this hitherto neglected region. In a special symposium, "How is the World Engaging with Contemporary Asian Art?," at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo on Feb. 17, directors of a number of the world's most renowned art museums explained, through short individual presentations and a discussion forum, how Asian art is being reflected through their institutions' programming and acquisitions, and what further work needs to be done.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 19, 2010
The man who popularized the Edo pleasure district
The Yoshiwara pleasure district of Edo (old Tokyo) has often been immortalized in word and image for the exquisite carnal pleasures it offered.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / ART BRIEF
Nov 12, 2010
'"Home Sweet Home" by Invader'
Gallery Target
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 8, 2010
What artists see in themselves
Visitors to Florence in Italy have long been awed by the works in two of the city's finest museums: the Uffizi Gallery and the Pitti Palace. But, perhaps preoccupied by prime examples of Raphael, Botticelli and other Renaissance artists, many visitors let their stay come to an end without enjoying the walk along the elevated Vasari Corridor, which links the two museums (and the Palazzo Vecchio). It's a shame, because the corridor shouldn't be overlooked. By appointment only, a visit would reveal a vast array of other artworks, including the majority of the Uffizi's collection of more than 1,700 self-portraits of master artists.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 24, 2010
Women of quiet strength
Female artists play a significant role in Japan's art world today, but a century ago, only a few women made a mark in the then male-dominated field. Shoen Uemura stands out as one of the most successful, a status she earned through the relentless study and perfection of her chosen theme of bijin-ga — pictures of beautiful women.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 17, 2010
Hifana "24H"
The concept behind Hifana's new CD/DVD, "24H," is to convey a day in the life of the Tokyo breakbeat duo via 12 tracks, each with its own video.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 17, 2010
Shedding some light on shadows
What follows you around nearly everywhere but you never notice?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / ART BRIEF
Aug 13, 2010
'Innocence — Art Towards Life'
Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / ART BRIEF
Jul 23, 2010
'Robert Waters: MAN'
Mizuma Art Gallery — Mizuma Action
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 18, 2010
'Paris-Kyoto': Two very different cities, one vibrant vision
Color photography, once thought of as the crass, poor cousin of the more aesthetically pleasing monochrome, is now firmly established as a valid art form. We have William Eggleston and his vivid images of rural America to thank for that.
CULTURE / Art
Oct 30, 2009
Verner Panton's colorful visions
Experimentation, playfulness, adventure. Through the example of maverick Danish designer Verner Panton, these words have entered the lexicon of many designers today.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 23, 2009
Unified by Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau's birth at the end of the 1900s not only affected the art world but also radically transformed the public's visual awareness, helping to propel product design, graphic design, typography and manufacturing into the 20th century.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 14, 2009
Mexico's search for an artistic identity
What kind of art would best represent a rapidly developing country coming out of the social upheaval of a violent revolution — especially when it had, only a century before that, just thrown off the yoke of colonial rule? Twentieth-century Mexico faced just this question — how it attempted to answer it can be seen in the exhibition "Camino A La Modernidad (The Road to Modernism)" at the Setagaya Art Museum. Staged to commemorate the 400th anniversary of relations between Mexico and Japan, the exhibition brings together 70 works, the largest-ever collection of modern Mexican art to be shown in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 7, 2009
Allowing ourselves to be deceived by art
Whether enjoying the sight of shadow puppets against a wall or the suggestive placing of objects in an Austin Powers movie, people have long delighted in the playful use of images.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 31, 2009
Metamorphose '09
Following last year's booking of Manuel Gottsching, Metamorphose continues to introduce Japanese audiences to the roots of electronic music with legendary Krautrock group Tangerine Dream headlining.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 26, 2009
A creative life that blossomed in the asylum
To view the pictures of Aloise Corbaz is to enter a fantastic, colorful world of a beautiful young woman with her handsome suitor, filled with carriages and crowns, roses and nights at the opera. The belle is Aloise herself, or, perhaps more precisely, Aloise's ideal self, center stage in a theatrical production far from her routine existence in a Swiss home for the mentally ill.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 22, 2009
Rothkos reunited in Chiba
The surfaces of Mark Rothko's canvases loom large, impenetrable and formidable, inviting you in but simultaneously denying you entry. Their deceptive simplicity has long posed a riddle to those who stand before them.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 8, 2009
Cubism remixed at a European crossroads
Cubism, as it emerged from the experiments of the painters Pablo Picasso and George Braque, was for some a necessary but limited artistic investigation in the 20th century. For others, though, it offered a blueprint for a new language, as in that part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that became Czechoslovakia, where it influenced sculpture, painting and architecture.
'So hot you can't breathe': Extreme heat hits the Philippines
A pedestrian cools himself with a folding hand fan as he waits for a ride along a road in Manila on Wednesday, as extreme heat hit the Philippines.
Did Japan intervene to prop up the yen? Analysts think it did.
A man walks past an electronic board displaying the exchange rate for the yen against the U.S. dollar (right) in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.
Number of vacant homes in Japan hits record high of 9 million
A vacant house in Tokyo is seen demolished in January 2020.
Weak yen fattens tourist wallets in Japan
People visit the Ameya Yokocho market in Tokyo's Ueno district during the Golden Week holiday on Tuesday.
Yellow sand allergy: A health issue made worse by climate change
A screenshot of the Meteorological Agency's satellite image of clouds and yellow sand (in pink) on Sunday.
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.
Casa del Cibo: A thriving jewel born from Tohoku’s harsh past
When chef Ryohei Ikemi moved to Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, and opened Casa del Cibo in 2011, it was the first proper Italian restaurant in the city.

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