National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
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Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, is the foremost museum collecting and exhibiting contemporary Japanese art.
This Tokyo museum is also known by the English acronym MOMAT (National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo). MOMAT is known for its collection of 20th century art and includes Western-style and Nihonga
Nihonga
or literally "Japanese-style paintings" is a term used to describe paintings that have been made in accordance with traditional Japanese artistic conventions, techniques and materials...
artists.
MOMAT history
The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, was the first National Museum of Art in Japan and dates back to 1952, when it was established as an institution governed by the Ministry of Education. The architect of the building was Kunio MaekawaKunio Maekawa
was a Japanese architect.-Formative years:He entered First Tokyo Middle School in 1918, and then Tokyo Imperial University in 1925. After graduation in 1928, he travelled to France to apprentice with Le Corbusier. In 1930 he returned to Japan and worked with Antonin Raymond, and in 1935 established...
. On two later occasions, neighbouring premises were purchased and the Museum was further enlarged. The most recent re-design of MOMAT was conceived by Yoshiro Taniguchi (father of Yoshio Taniguchi
Yoshio Taniguchi
Yoshio Taniguchi is a Japanese architect best known for his redesign of the Museum of Modern Art in New York which was reopened November 20, 2004.- Biography :...
who designed the extension of MOMA
Moma
Moma may refer to:* Moma , an owlet moth genus* Moma Airport, a Russian public airport* Moma District, Nampula, Mozambique* Moma River, a right tributary of the Indigirka River* Google Moma, the Google corporate intranet...
in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
).
MOMAT collections
The collection contains many notable Japanese artists since the Meiji periodMeiji period
The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...
as well as a few contemporary Western prints.
In the early years of the 20th century, Matsukata Kojiro
Matsukata Kojiro
was an early 20th-century businessman who devoted his life and fortune to amassing a collection of Western art which, he hoped, would become the nucleus of a Japanese national museum focused particularly on masterworks of the Western art tradition...
collected Japanese ukiyo-e
Ukiyo-e
' is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters...
woodblock prints which had been scattered throughout the world. The 1925 exhibition of the woodblock prints Mtsukata collected abroad is thought to have been the first of its kind in Japan. Today approximately 8,000 ukiyo-e prints from the Matsukata collection are housed in the Tokyo National Museum.
Crafts Gallery
In 1977, the museum opened an annex, the Kōgeikan Crafts Gallery, that collects and exhibits textiles, ceramicsCeramics (art)
In art history, ceramics and ceramic art mean art objects such as figures, tiles, and tableware made from clay and other raw materials by the process of pottery. Some ceramic products are regarded as fine art, while others are regarded as decorative, industrial or applied art objects, or as...
, lacquer
Lacquer
In a general sense, lacquer is a somewhat imprecise term for a clear or coloured varnish that dries by solvent evaporation and often a curing process as well that produces a hard, durable finish, in any sheen level from ultra matte to high gloss and that can be further polished as required...
, and other Japanese crafts as well as craft and design from around the world dating from the late 19th century to the present. Its collection focus in particular is the work of Japanese Living National Treasures. The Crafts Gallery maintains its own research library.
National Film Center
The Kyōbashi building, remodeled after the move to Kitanomaru Park, now houses the museum's National Film Center (NFC). The nation's only public institution devoted to cinema, it holds about 40,000 films, and numerous other materials, in its collection. The Center has film-related materials on permanent display; and it holds special screenings in its theaters. NFC is a member of The International Federation of Film ArchivesThe International Federation of Film Archives
The International Federation of Film Archives was founded in Paris in 1938 by the British Film Institute, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Cinémathèque Française and the Reichsfilmarchiv in Berlin....
.
The NFC's Tokyo headquarters in the Kyōbashi building is a one-minute walk from Kyōbashi Station
Kyobashi Station (Tokyo)
Kyōbashi Station is a train station in Chūō-ku, Tokyo Prefecture, Japan. Its station number is G-10.-Adjacent stations:-Gallery:...
(Station G-10) on the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line
Tokyo Metro Ginza Line
The is a subway line located in Tokyo, Japan. It is part of the of Tokyo Metro network. The official name is . It is 14.3 km long and serves the wards of Shibuya, Minato, Chūō, Chiyoda, and Taitō....
. It is also a one-minute walk from Takarachō Station (Station A-12) on the Toei Asakusa Line.http://www.momat.go.jp/english/map_info.html An NFC branch is located in the city of Sagamihara
Sagamihara, Kanagawa
is a city located in north central Kanagawa Prefecture, bordering Tokyo, Japan. It is the third most populous city in the prefecture, after Yokohama and Kawasaki, and the fifth most populous suburb of Greater Tokyo. Its northern neighbor is Machida, with which a cross-prefectural merger has been...
in neighboring Kanagawa Prefecture
Kanagawa Prefecture
is a prefecture located in the southern Kantō region of Japan. The capital is Yokohama. Kanagawa is part of the Greater Tokyo Area.-History:The prefecture has some archaeological sites going back to the Jōmon period...
.
Union catalog
The "Union Catalog of the Collections of the National Art Museums, Japan" is a consolidated catalog of material held by the four Japanese national art museums -- the National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto (MOMAKNational Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
The is an art museum in Kyoto, Japan.This Kyoto museum is also known by the English acronym MoMAK .-MoMAK history:...
)), the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo (MOMAT), the National Museum of Art in Osaka (NMAO
National Museum of Art, Osaka
The is a subterranean Japanese art museum located on the island of Nakanoshima, located between the Dōjima River and the Tosabori River, about 5 minutes west of Higobashi Station in central Osaka....
), and the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo (NMWA):
- National Museum of Modern Art, KyotoNational Museum of Modern Art, KyotoThe is an art museum in Kyoto, Japan.This Kyoto museum is also known by the English acronym MoMAK .-MoMAK history:...
(MOMAK). - National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (MOMAT)
- National Museum of Art, OsakaNational Museum of Art, OsakaThe is a subterranean Japanese art museum located on the island of Nakanoshima, located between the Dōjima River and the Tosabori River, about 5 minutes west of Higobashi Station in central Osaka....
(NMAO) - National Museum of Western Art (NMWA)
The online version of this union catalog is currently under construction, with only selected works available at this time.
Selected artists
- Ai-mitsu (1907-1946), Japan
- Josef AlbersJosef AlbersJosef Albers was a German-born American artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of the 20th century....
(1888-1976), Germany - Karel AppelKarel AppelChristiaan Karel Appel was a Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet. He started painting at the age of fourteen and studied at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam in the 1940s...
(1921-2006), Netherlands - Diane ArbusDiane ArbusDiane Arbus March 14, 1923 – July 26, 1971) was an American photographer and writer noted for black-and-white square photographs of "deviant and marginal people or of people whose normality seems ugly or surreal." A friend said that Arbus said that she was "afraid.....
(1923-1971), US - Jean ArpJean ArpJean Arp / Hans Arp was a German-French, or Alsatian, sculptor, painter, poet and abstract artist in other media such as torn and pasted paper....
(1886-1966), France - Francis BaconFrancis Bacon (painter)Francis Bacon , was an Irish-born British figurative painter known for his bold, austere, graphic and emotionally raw imagery. Bacon's painterly but abstract figures typically appear isolated in glass or steel geometrical cages set against flat, nondescript backgrounds...
(1909-1992), UK - Arthur BoydArthur BoydArthur Merric Bloomfield Boyd, AC, OBE was one of the leading Australian painters of the late 20th Century. A member of the prominent Boyd artistic dynasty in Australia, his relatives included painters, sculptors, architects or other arts professionals. His sister Mary Boyd married John Perceval,...
(1920-1999), Australia - Daniel BurenDaniel BurenDaniel Buren is a French conceptual artist.- Work :Sometimes classified as an abstract minimalist Buren is known best for using regular, contrasting maxi stripes to integrate the visual surface and architectural space, notably historical, landmark architecture.Among his chief concerns is the...
, (1938- ), France - Lawrence CarrollLawrence CarrollLawrence Carroll is an American painter born to George and Mary Carroll in Melbourne Australia. He moved to Santa Monica, California with his parents and older brother Ronald in 1958. In 1960 his family relocated to Newbury Park, a suburb located 45 minutes north of Los Angeles...
, (1954- ), Australia - Marc ChagallMarc ChagallMarc Chagall Art critic Robert Hughes referred to Chagall as "the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century."According to art historian Michael J...
(1887-1985), France - Abraham David ChristianAbraham David Christian-Life and Work:Christian's sculptures were included in Documenta 5, when he was only nineteen years old, and he had his first one-person show at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, in 1973...
(1952- ), Germany - Imogen CunninghamImogen CunninghamImogen Cunningham was an American photographer known for her photography of botanicals, nudes and industry.-Life and career:...
(1883-1976), US - Robert DelaunayRobert DelaunayRobert Delaunay was a French artist who, with his wife Sonia Delaunay and others, cofounded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes. His later works were more abstract, reminiscent of Paul Klee...
(1885-1941), France - Hisao Domoto (1928- ), Japan
- EikyuEikyuwas a after Ten'ei and before Gen'ei. This period spanned the years from July 1113 through April 1118. The reigning emperor was .-Change of Era:* January 20, 1113 : The new era name was created to mark an event or series of events...
(1911-1960), Japan - Max ErnstMax ErnstMax Ernst was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was one of the primary pioneers of the Dada movement and Surrealism.-Early life:...
(1891-1976), Germany - Walker EvansWalker EvansWalker Evans was an American photographer best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans's work from the FSA period uses the large-format, 8x10-inch camera...
(1903-1975), US - Roland Flexner (1944- ), France
- Tsuguharu FoujitaTsuguharu Foujitawas a painter and printmaker born in Tokyo, Japan who applied Japanese ink techniques to Western style paintings.- Education :In 1910 when he was twenty-four years old Foujita graduated from what is now the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music....
(1886-1968), France - Paul GauguinPaul GauguinEugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...
(1848-1903), France - Juan GrisJuan GrisJosé Victoriano González-Pérez , better known as Juan Gris, was a Spanish painter and sculptor who lived and worked in France most of his life...
(1887-1927), Spain - George GroszGeorge GroszGeorg Ehrenfried Groß was a German artist known especially for his savagely caricatural drawings of Berlin life in the 1920s...
(1893-1959), Germany - Koga Harue
- HergéHergéGeorges Prosper Remi , better known by the pen name Hergé, was a Belgian comics writer and artist. His best known and most substantial work is the 23 completed comic books in The Adventures of Tintin series, which he wrote and illustrated from 1929 until his death in 1983, although he was also...
(1907-1983), Belgium - Kaii Higashiyama (1908-1999), Japan
- Shunso Hishida (1874-1911), Japan
- Fukuzawa Ichiro
- Leiko IkemuraLeiko Ikemurais a Japanese-Swiss painter and sculptor.-Biography:Leiko Ikemura left her country to study in Spain from 1973 to 1978 at the Academia de Bellas Artes in Granada and Seville. In 1979, Ikemura moved to Zurich to live and worked there for 4 years. The first of her mature paintings developed around 1980...
(1951- ), Japan - Johannes IttenJohannes IttenJohannes Itten was a Swiss expressionist painter, designer, teacher, writer and theorist associated with the Bauhaus school...
(1888-1967), Czechoslovakia - Wassily KandinskyWassily KandinskyWassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky was an influential Russian painter and art theorist. He is credited with painting the first purely-abstract works. Born in Moscow, Kandinsky spent his childhood in Odessa. He enrolled at the University of Moscow, studying law and economics...
(1866-1944), Rumania - Kimsooja (1957- ), Korea
- Ryūsei KishidaRyusei Kishidawas a Japanese painter in Taishō and Shōwa period Japan. He is best known for his realistic yōga-style portraiture, but also for his nihonga paintings in the 1920s.-Biography:...
(1891-1929), Japan - Paul KleePaul KleePaul Klee was born in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland, and is considered both a German and a Swiss painter. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. He was, as well, a student of orientalism...
(1879-1940), Czechoslovakia - Willem de KooningWillem de KooningWillem de Kooning was a Dutch American abstract expressionist artist who was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands....
(1904-1997), Netherlands - Yasuo KuniyoshiYasuo Kuniyoshiwas an American painter, photographer and printmaker born in Okayama, Japan.He migrated to America in 1906, a year later began studying at the Los Angeles School of Art and Design. In 1935 he was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship. He taught at the Art Students League of New York in New York City...
(1889-1953), Japan
- Yayoi KusamaYayoi Kusamais a Japanese artist whose paintings, collages, soft sculptures, performance art and environmental installations all share an obsession with repetition, pattern, and accumulation...
(1929- ), Japan - René Jules Lalique (1860-1945), France
- Fernand LégerFernand LégerJoseph Fernand Henri Léger was a French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of Cubism which he gradually modified into a more figurative, populist style...
(1881-1955), France - Shunsuke Matsumoto (1912-1948), Japan
- Joan MiróJoan MiróJoan Miró i Ferrà was a Spanish Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramicist born in Barcelona.Earning international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox for the subconscious mind, a re-creation of the childlike, and a manifestation of Catalan pride...
(1893-1983), Spain - Aiko Miyawaki (1929- ), Japan
- Amedeo ModiglianiAmedeo ModiglianiAmedeo Clemente Modigliani was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. Primarily a figurative artist, he became known for paintings and sculptures in a modern style characterized by mask-like faces and elongation of form...
(1884-1920), Italy - László Moholy-NagyLászló Moholy-NagyLászló Moholy-Nagy was a Hungarian painter and photographer as well as professor in the Bauhaus school. He was highly influenced by constructivism and a strong advocate of the integration of technology and industry into the arts.-Early life:...
(1895-1946), Hungary - Henry MooreHenry MooreHenry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA was an English sculptor and artist. He was best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art....
(1898-1986), UK - Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939), Czechoslovakia
- Kagaku MurakamiKagaku Murakamiwas a Japanese painter and illustrator, noted for his numerous Buddhist subjects and advancement in the techniques of nihonga painting in the early 20th century.-Biography:...
(1888-1939), Japan - Tsune Nakamura (1887-1924), Japan
- Win NgWin NgWin Ng was a Chinese American sculptor, industrial designer and illustrator. He is best known as the co-founder of the groundbreaking San Francisco based handmades department store Taylor & Ng.-Early life:...
(1936-1991), US - Ben NicholsonBen NicholsonBenjamin Lauder "Ben" Nicholson, OM was a British painter of abstract compositions , landscape and still-life.-Background and Training:...
(1894-1982), UK - Isamu NoguchiIsamu Noguchiwas a prominent Japanese American artist and landscape architect whose artistic career spanned six decades, from the 1920s onward. Known for his sculpture and public works, Noguchi also designed stage sets for various Martha Graham productions, and several mass-produced lamps and furniture pieces,...
(1904-1988), US - Sidney NolanSidney NolanSir Sidney Robert Nolan OM, AC was one of Australia's best-known painters and printmakers.-Early life:Nolan was born in Carlton, a suburb of Melbourne, on 22 April 1917. He was the eldest of four children. His family later moved to St Kilda. Nolan attended the Brighton Road State School and...
(1917-1992), Australia - Morie Ogiwara (1879-1910), Japan
- Oscar OiwaOscar OiwaOscar Oiwa born in Brazil as son of Japanese immigrants, he received his B.F.A. from the School of Architecture and Urbanism, São Paulo University. Oiwa absorbed influences from comic books, art, and magazines throughout his youth, as well as the urban environment of his birthplace...
(1965- ), Brazil - Taro Okamoto (1911-1996), Japan
- Georgia O'KeeffeGeorgia O'KeeffeGeorgia Totto O'Keeffe was an American artist.Born near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, O'Keeffe first came to the attention of the New York art community in 1916, several decades before women had gained access to art training in America’s colleges and universities, and before any of its women artists...
(1887-1986), US - Pablo PicassoPablo PicassoPablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
(1881-1973), Spain - Norman RockwellNorman RockwellNorman Percevel Rockwell was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening...
(1894-1978), US - Georges RouaultGeorges RouaultGeorges Henri Rouault[p] was a French Fauvist and Expressionist painter, and printmaker in lithography and etching.-Childhood and education:Rouault was born in Paris into a poor family...
(1871-1958), France - Henri RousseauHenri RousseauHenri Julien Félix Rousseau was a French Post-Impressionist painter in the Naïve or Primitive manner. He was also known as Le Douanier , a humorous description of his occupation as a toll collector...
(1844-1910), France - Aso Saburo
- Yuzo SaekiYuzo Saekiwas a Japanese painter, noted for his work in developing modernism and Fauvist Expressionism within the yōga art movement in early twentieth-century Japanese painting.-Biography:...
(1898-1928), Japan - Kuroda SeikiKuroda SeikiViscount was the pseudonym of a Japanese painter and teacher, noted for bringing Western theories about art to a wide Japanese audience. He was among the leaders of the yōga movement in late 19th- and early 20th-century Japanese painting...
(1866-1924), Japan - Kurt SchwittersKurt SchwittersKurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters was a German painter who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including Dada, Constructivism, Surrealism, poetry, sound, painting, sculpture, graphic design, typography and what came to be known as...
(1887-1948), Germany - Sotaro Yasui (1888-1955), Japan
- Alfred StieglitzAlfred StieglitzAlfred Stieglitz was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his fifty-year career in making photography an accepted art form...
(1864-1946), US - Tatsuo Takayama
- Ryuzaburo Umehara (1888-1986), Japan
- Kanae YamamotoKanae Yamamotois a Japanese politician of the New Komeito Party, a member of the House of Councillors in the Diet . A native of Hiroshima Prefecture and graduate of Kyoto University, she joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1995, attending Istanbul University while in the ministry...
(1882-1946), Japan - Misao Yokoyama
- Tetsugoro Yoruzu (1884-1927), Japan