SHADOWS: Works from the National Museums of Art

The National Museum of Art collection, preserved and maintained by four of the five museums affiliated with the administrative institution (The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo and The National Museum of Art, Osaka), totals over 33,300 works (as of late March 2010). These include the approximately 13,000 works in The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo collection, featuring Japanese and foreign works of art, photography, crafts, and film, dating from the early 20th century to the present; the approximately 9,600 works in The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto collection, featuring Japanese and foreign works of photography, crafts, and design from the modern and contemporary era, and a focus on the art of western Japan, in particular Kyoto; the approximately 4,600 works in The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo collection, featuring Western art from the Middle Ages to the 20th century; and the approximately 6,100 works in The National Museum of Art, Osaka collection, featuring Japanese and foreign contemporary art from 1945 to the present. In this exhibition, we are proud to present a wide array of 173 specially selected works from this enormous collection, focusing primarily on paintings, prints, photographs, and films, in an expansive exhibition space (equipped with eight-meter-high ceilings) at The National Art Center, Tokyo. We hope that visitors will take this special opportunity to savor the pleasures of these great works from the various national museums in this spacious setting.

The wide range of works in the National Museum of Art collection includes everything from modern Western art to Japanese and foreign contemporary art. Among the modern Western paintings are works by Jusepe de Ribera, Jacob van Rusidael, Gustave Courbet, Claude Monet, and Eugene Delacroix, while the Western prints, dating from the Renaissance to the modern era, include works by Hendrik Goltzius, Giovanni Piranesi, Francisco de Goya, Honore Daumier, and Max Klinger. Among the modern Western-style paintings by Japanese artists are works by Kishida Ryusei, Yasui Sotaro, Suda Kunitaro, and Kitawaki Noboru; and modern Japanese-style paintings by Hayami Gyoshu, Yokoyama Taikan, and Higashiyama Kaii. In addition, the collection includes photographs by Alfred Stieglitz, Andre Kertesz, Moriyama Daido, and Shinoyama Kishin; and various works from the 20th century and contemporary era by Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Takamatsu Jiro, and Sugimoto Hiroshi. As all of these works will be assembled in a single location, the viewer will have a special opportunity to view a wide array of art that spans many historical eras, geographical locations, and artistic genres.

Since the ancient Roman historian Pliny the Elder wrote, "...it began by tracing an outline around a man's shadow," shadows have been linked to the birth of the art of painting and have continued to function as an integral and universal element in visual art in countless eras and areas. Yet, due to this quality of universality and diversity and the complexity of meaning attached to shadows in each period and place, they have proven to be a difficult subject to examine in a systematic manner. In this exhibition, while carefully dissecting this important yet challenging theme, we have adopted an experimental approach in an attempt to shed light on individual aspects of the subject. We hope that this might provide the viewer with a deeper understanding of a variety of concerns related to shadows in art.