Warehouse TERRADA’s WHAT MUSEUM to Hold Obayashi Collection Exhibition “Tadao Ando: The Act of Drawing”

WHAT MUSEUM was opened in December 2020 aiming to make artists’ and collectors’ precious art properties that have been entrusted to us accessible to the public. It exhibits works by artists active in the contemporary art scene side-by-side with the thoughts of the collectors as well as the artists, offering a new kind of space for the appreciation of art. At this Obayashi Collection Exhibition, we will be highlighting a collection of masterpieces accumulated over many years by Mr. Takeo Obayashi, Chairman of the Organizing Committee for the international art festival, “Aichi Triennale 2022” (Aichi Prefecture), and exhibiting the collection along three different themes. By displaying “Tadao Ando : The Act of Drawing,” a showcase focusing on the two-dimensional pieces of architect Tadao Ando that is also the starting point of this collection, “Between the City and Me,” an assortment of photographs of cities as taken by artists from a variety of different perspectives, and “Self-History,” a piece that allows visitors to witness over 40 irreplaceable works of contemporary art all at once, not only will we aim to demonstrate the changing nature of this collection, we will also attempt a more multi-faceted approach to this assemblage of artistic works.

In “Tadao Ando: The Act of Drawing” of the Obayashi Collection Exhibit, we will showcase 15 pieces of two-dimensional artworks, centering around drawings approximately 10 m in length, and including sketches of Ando’s early architectural works, and silk screens of incomplete projects. Tadao Ando’s project begins by taking his vision of the future and depicting it through diagrams. Through delicate strokes of thin pens and colored pencils made on Japanese paper, viewers can gain witness to Ando’s unwavering embrace of cities and buildings, and his dynamically rendered drawings will allow them to witness how he vigorously charges toward the future. Please see the following for details on this Exhibit. We will also be providing details regarding “Between the City and Me” and “Self-History” at a later date.

Title  : Obayashi Collection Exhibition “Tadao Ando: The Act of Drawing”
Dates : September 25th (Sat), 2021 – February 13th (Sun), 2022 (It will be closed during the year-end and New Year holidays.)
Venue: WHAT Museum 1F Space2 (Warehouse TERRADA G Building 2-6-10 Higashi-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 140-0002)
Open Hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM (Admission until 5:00 PM), closed on Mondays (but open when Monday is a public holiday, then closed the following Tuesday)
Admission   : Adults 1,200 yen / University or vocational college students 700 yen / Junior and senior high school students 500 yen / Students under elementary school age Free
* Including the admission for the exhibition “Between the City and Me,” and “Self-History”
* Tickets will be on sale from September 1st (Wed). Please visit the WHAT MUSEUM official website for details.
Organizer/Planner       : WHAT MUSEUM
Special Cooperation     : Takeo Obayashi, and Tadao Ando Architect & Associates
Cooperation                   : Riichi Miyake
Venue graphic               : Kohei Sekigawa
Cooperation in writing: Miaki Nagai
Graphic                           : ujidesign
U    R    L : https://what.warehouseofart.org/en/exhibitions_events/tadao-ando-the-act-of-drawing

– An exhibit of 15 pieces of two-dimensional works by Tadao Ando, including his early drawings and silk screens
-Premiere showing in Japan of the approximately 2 meter tall sculpture, “Tadao Ando,” by sculptor Xavier Veilhan
– Exhibition of incomplete projects “The Theater in the Rock, Oya” and “Nakanoshima Project I (Osaka City Hall)”
– Premiere showing in Japan of the approximately 10-meter length of sketch for “Benesse Art Site Naoshima”, developed at the Shanghai Biennale (held in 2000)

Born in Osaka in 1941. Architect, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Tokyo.
Ando traveled around the world as an independent student of architecture, and founded Tadao Ando Architect & Associates in 1969. His representative works include the “Row House, Sumiyoshi,” the “Church of the Light,” the “Pulitzer Arts Foundation,” the “Chichu Art Museum,” the “Nakanoshima Children’s Book Forest,” the “He Art Museum,” and the “La bourse de commerce – Pinault Collection.”
He has won various awards, such as the 1979 Architectural Institute of Japan Annual Prize, the 1993 Japan Art Academy Prize, the 1995 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the 2002 American Institute of Architects (AIA) Gold Medal, the 2003 Person of Cultural Merit, the 2005 International Union of Architects (UIA) Gold Medal, the 2010 John F. Kennedy Center Gold Medal in the Arts, the Shimpei Goto Award, the Order of Culture, the 2013 Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Commandeur), the 2015 Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, the 2016 Isamu Noguchi Award, and the 2021 L’ordre national de la légion d’honneur (Commandeur). In addition to being a visiting professor at Yale University, Columbia University, and Harvard University, he has taught as a professor at the University of Tokyo, and is currently Professor Emeritus at the University of Tokyo.
Solo exhibitions depicting his work have been held in 1991 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, in 1993 at the Pompidou Center (Paris), in 2017 at the National Art Center, Tokyo, in 2018 at the Pompidou Center, in 2021 at the Fosun Foundation (Shanghai), and the He Art Museum (Foshan).
His books include “Kenchiku wo kataru (Talking on Architecture)” (1999), “Rensen Renpai (succession of defeats)” (2001), “Tadao Ando – Shigoto wo tsukuru- Watashi no Rirekisho (Tadao Ando Making Work-My Resume)” (2012), “Jutaku (Residence)” (2017).

Born in Tokyo in 1954. President of the Obayashi Foundation. In addition to his role as the Chairman of the Organizing Committee for the international art festival “Aichi Triennale 2022,” he is also a member of various domestic and international museum councils. He is the author of “Toshi wa Bunka (Art) de Yomigaeru (Art Will Revive the City)” (Shueisha, 2019).

WHAT MUSEUM opened in Tennoz, Tokyo in December 2020. It is a facility to make artists’ and collectors’ precious art properties that have been entrusted to us accessible to the public. We have used our unique insight as a warehousing company to explore the concept of what an art facility should be. The result is to open up the warehouse to offer the public a look at art that they would not ordinarily have the opportunity to see. The museum exhibits works by artists active in the contemporary art scene side-by-side with the thoughts of the collectors as well as the artists, offering an innovative space for the appreciation of art.
The name of WHAT (WAREHOUSE OF ART TERRADA) implies the cultural value which is gleaming quietly in the warehouse, and the museum exhibits paintings, three-dimensional works as well as architectural models, photographs, movies, literature and installations. We plan and exhibit these diversified arts and cultures in our individual style of museum as a warehouse company in new and unique approaches.

Website    : https://what.warehouseofart.org/en
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[ ARCHI-DEPOT Project]
It was transformed from ARCHI DEPOT MUSEUM which had been stored and exhibited architectural models since 2016, and continues the planning of exhibitions  and the operation of Architectural Model Warehouse.
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