History is littered with grand projects and dashed expectations that are no less intriguing than its moments of triumph and heroism. A large portrait in oils of a splendidly attired, mid-ranking samurai posing regally in a Roman palace in the early 1600s bears witness to one such episode. In 1613, ...
If ever an artist was in a constant state of reinvention, it was Masamu Yanase (1900-1945), now the subject of ...
Scenes from Art Fair Tokyo 2014 (March 7-9), Japan's largest gallery art event (photos by Mio Yamada).
It is difficult to criticize Art Fair Tokyo, the commercial art fair that celebrates its ninth edition at Tokyo International Forum in Yurakucho this weekend. Truth be told, it’s a wonder that the event has reached nine editions at all, what with the inherent ...
The legacies of talented multi-generational families not only reveal each member's individual achievements but also offer a glimpse of how the changing currents of the times impact individual creativity. Such is the case with Ginko, Ryusei, and Reiko Kishida.
Fruits of Passion" displays contemporary works that were acquired during the last decade by the Musée National d'Art Moderne (MNAM), Centre Pompidou. The exhibition begins, though, with the final threads of modernism.
The Aesthetic Movement, a loosely defined tendency in 19th-century European art, operated under the slogan of "art of art's sake" and believed beauty was the end, not the means.
Few artists would consider cleaning the city streets, designing custom-built nuclear shelters or fighting charges of counterfeiting money as part of their activities. But then most artists don’t share the concerns that the members of Hi-Red Center (HRC) had as one of the most ...
It’s not easy to make profound changes in a ceramic style that has a 1,000-year history. Take, for instance, the style known as Bizen. Bizen pottery is one of Japan’s most celebrated high-fired unglazed ceramic styles, and continues to be so to this very ...
The former Rissei Elementary School site, nowadays an occasional cultural events center, was earlier home to the Kyoto Dento, the electric company whose technology helped industrialist Katsutaro Inabata to demonstrate the Lumière Brothers’ cinématographe camera in 1897 — Japan’s first experience with film. Significant ...
Some paintings will always be identified with the place where you first saw them. You may even feel surprised to see them somewhere else. This is how I felt when I visited the Mori Arts Center Gallery, one of Tokyo’s high-rise art venues, to ...
In today's complicated world of mass media and communication, contemporary British artists are finding new means of expression.
How differently do you think the project would have been viewed if the images of drone-attack sites were printed in a book? Is the context of the social networking site Instagram important? Instagram is important because it’s a place where many people go every ...
How did this work come together? The starting point for “crt mgn” was a performance I did in Tokyo in memory of Korean-American artist Nam June Paik, who died in 2006. In the performance at the Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, I held a ...
In 1965, artist Nam June Paik (1932-2006)attached a strong magnet to the top of a television. The crisp image, overpowered by the magnet, folded onto itself in beautiful geometric waves. But it wasn’t meant to be beautiful; it was an attack. “Television has been ...
