2023.3.13
WHAT MUSEUM to Hold “ART de Cha Cha Cha − Exploring the DNA of Japanese Contemporary Art −” from the Takahashi Ryutaro Collection from April 28th, (Fri) 2023
The Collectors' Museum of Contemporary Art, WHAT MUSEUM, operated by Warehouse TERRADA, will hold an exhibition titled "ART de Cha Cha Cha − Exploring the DNA of Japanese Contemporary Art −" from the Takahashi Ryutaro Collection from April 28th (Fri) to August 27th (Sun), 2023. This exhibition will feature approximately 40 works of art by more than 30 artists from the Takahashi Ryutaro Collection—an indispensable part of the Japanese contemporary art scene since the 1990s—and explores the DNA and fascination of Japanese contemporary art.
The Takahashi Ryutaro Collection is a contemporary art collection started in earnest in 1997 by psychiatrist Ryutaro Takahashi, one of Japan’s foremost art collectors, who currently owns over 3000 pieces. This exhibition is centered around works from this collection. It will offer a comprehensive view of the diversity of Japanese contemporary art, featuring pieces by artists including Keizaburo Okamura, Tomoko Konoike, Kishio Suga, Akira Yamaguchi and Tadanori Yokoo, who embrace the culture, art and values established throughout Japan’s long history and reinterpret them from their unique perspectives and express them in new forms and methods.
Japanese culture and art have evolved while changing with the times by flexibly taking in and interpreting a wide variety of foreign cultures. With such unique flexibility and sensibility, contemporary artists in Japan have achieved an unparalleled level of originality by embracing and confronting the culture and art of Japan. By the works on display in this exhibition, we explore what contemporary artists have found in traditional Japanese culture and art, and how they have applied it to their own creative expression. We hope that, through this exhibition, visitors will be able to explore the DNA of Japanese contemporary art and discover its appeal in new ways, and support Nippon contemporary art in the future. Some related events will also be held during the exhibition, the details of which will be announced soon.
[Overview of the Exhibition]
Title: “ART de Cha Cha Cha − Exploring the DNA of Japanese Contemporary Art −” from the Takahashi Ryutaro Collection
Dates: April 28th (Fri) – August 27th (Sun), 2023
Venue: SPACE1, 1st floor and 2nd floor at WHAT MUSEUM (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 1,500 yen / University or vocational college students 800 yen / Students under high school age Free
* Online ticket system
* Including the admission for the concurrent exhibition
* Re-entry ticket valid during the exhibition will be on sale
WHAT MUSEUM PASSPORT 2,000 yen
* WHAT MUSEUM’s ARCHI-DEPOT stores more than 600 architectural models, which architects and architectural firms entrust to us, and exhibits a part of them for visitors.
Price: Admission for ARCHI-DEPOT 700 yen / Admission including both the exhibition and ARCHI-DEPOT 2,000 yen
Organizing and planning: WHAT MUSEUM
Planning cooperation: The Takahashi Ryutaro Collection
Graphic: ujidesign
URL: https://what.warehouseofart.org/en/exhibitions/takahashi-collection-artdechachacha-en
[Exhibited artists (planning)] (in alphabetical order)
Satoru Aoyama, Koji Enokura, Masaya Hashimoto, Koji Hatakeyama, Yu-ichi Inoue, Takahiro Iwasaki, Tomiyuki Kaneko, Kasetsu, Tomoko Konoike, Mikiko Kumazawa, Kazumi Kurigami, Takuro Kuwata, Lee Ufan, Kumi Machida, Erina Matsui, Masayasu Mitsuke, Yasumasa Morimura, Goro Murayama, Motohiko Odani, Keizaburo Okamura, Tsuyoshi Ozawa, Nahoko Sashida, Nobuo Sekine, Yoshihiro Suda, Kishio Suga, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Tabaimo, Hiroki Tashiro, Hisashi Tenmyouya, Ai Yamaguchi, Akira Yamaguchi, Hidenori Yamaguchi, and Tadanori Yokoo
[Highlights]
Works of art emerge in light and shade
Impressive large-scale works by Keizaburo Okamura and works by Hiroshi Sugimoto, Yu-ichi Inoue, Kazumi Kurigami and others resonate with each other, creating a special exhibition space where the works emerge in light and shade.
Uniquely Japanese pieces focusing on techniques, materials, and motifs
This exhibition features works by Tsuyoshi Ozawa, Tomoko Konoike, Hisashi Tenmyouya, Akira Yamaguchi, Tadanori Yokoo and others who incorporate traditional techniques, materials and motifs unique to Japan into their varied forms of expression.
Transcendental contemporary works of art utilizing exquisite techniques
This exhibition features various two-dimensional and three-dimensional works created with extraordinary technique, including large plates by Masayasu Mitsuke, ink-wash paintings by Hidenori Yamaguchi, and sculptures by Yoshihiro Suda and Masaya Hashimoto.
Mono-ha artworks — an essential art movement of Japanese contemporary art scene
The exhibition features pieces by Koji Enokura, Kishio Suga, Nobuo Sekine, Lee Ufan and others who are representative of the Japanese Mono-ha art movement of the late 1960s and 1970s.
Approximately 20 works will be exhibited for the first time as part of the Takahashi Ryutaro Collection
Many pieces will be on show for the first time, including an installation by Kasetsu, a video piece by Tabaimo, and a sculpture by Motohiko Odani.
Keizaburo OKAMURA “Lions 08-1” 2008
Courtesy of GALLERY KOBAYASHI, Photo by Mareo Suemasa
Tomoko Konoike “untitled” 2010 © Tomoko Konoike
TENMYOUYA HISASHI "Robot Myouou" 2015 © Tenmyouya Hisashi
Nobuo Sekine “Elements of Myth” 1989 © Nobuo Sekine Estate, Photo by Keizo KIOKU
Masayasu Mitsuke “Untitled” 2022 ©Masayasu Mitsuke, Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts
Takuro Kuwata “Tea bowl” 2010 Takuro Kuwata, Courtesy of KOSAKU KANECHIKA, Photo by Keizo KIOKU
[Audio Guides]
Descriptions of artworks and commentary by the collector will be available.
By downloading the official WHAT MUSEUM app, visitors can use the audio guide when visiting the museum. (Free)
[Concurrent Exhibition]
WHAT MUSEUM will hold Open Creation of Art for the first time during this exhibition. There will be a special workspace, and an artist will visit to create new works, while completed works will also be exhibited. More details will be announced soon.
[Video Interviews with Exhibiting Artists]
Interviews with artists whose works are / were featured in the exhibition will be available in our WHAT ARTIST INTERVIEW series via the official WHAT MUSEUM YouTube channel. Interviews related to this exhibition will be released sequentially.
Official YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/WHATMUSEUM
[About the Takahashi Ryutaro Collection]
Photo: Elena Tyutina
The Takahashi Ryutaro Collection is a contemporary art collection that started in earnest by psychiatrist, Ryutaro Takahashi in 1997. Starting from Yayoi Kusama and Sawako Goda, the collection focuses on contemporary Japanese art, and consists of many early and representative works by artists such as Yoshitomo Nara, Takashi Murakami, Kenji Yanobe, Tomoko Konoike, Makoto Aida, Akira Yamaguchi, Kohei Nawa, Izumi Kato, Aiko Miyanaga, and Manabu Ikeda who are today highly acclaimed figures within the international art scene. Since 2008, collection exhibitions have been held in 23 public and private art museums across the world. Through exhibitions such as, neoteny japan –Takahashi Collection (Kirishima Open Air Museum, Sapporo Art Park, the Ueno Royal Museum, and other venues), TAKAHASHI COLLECTION: Mindfulness! (Nagoya City Art Museum and other venues), TAKAHASHI COLLECTION: Mirror Neuron (Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery), and Cosmos / Intime –The Takahashi Collection (Maison de la Culture du Japon à Paris), it continues to provide various opportunities to encounter some of the most remarkable contemporary artists and their works. In 2020, Ryutaro Takahashi received the Commissioner for Cultural Affairs Award for his great contribution to the promotion and popularization of contemporary art. At the exhibition, INSIDE THE COLLECTOR’S VAULT Vol.1, which was held at WHAT MUSEUM in Warehouse TERRADA, the works of Sawako Goda, Yayoi Kusama, Makoto Aida that are, in essence, the origins of the Takahashi Ryutaro Collection, were presented along with large-scale masterpieces by Aki Kondo and Kei Imazu, as well as works of a new trend and generation of artists including Hiraku Suzuki, Kazuki Umezawa, Yuko Mohri, Rikako Kawauchi, Nanae Mitobe, DIEGO, and BIEN. The collection currently continues to be in progression, with Ryutaro Takahashi actively engaging in discovering new artists, in addition to his on-going efforts towards the reassessment of artworks.
[About WHAT MUSEUM]
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 two- and 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.