The Esoteric Influence of Taro Okamoto

The Esoteric Influence of Taro Okamoto

Alien named PAIRA, 1956 Visiting the Taro Okamoto Museum of Art is always a fascinating experience. Located in Kawasaki's heavily...
Painting: Octopus

Painting: Octopus

Leonor Fini: Consciously Painting the Subconscious

Leonor Fini: Consciously Painting the Subconscious

Between the Two, 1967 One of my favorite paintings is one by a trained elephant that I picked up on holiday in Thailand daubed by a ...
Jackson Pollock: The First Major Japan Exhibition

Jackson Pollock: The First Major Japan Exhibition

Despite his art superstar status, Jackson Pollock's avant-gardism has proved a stumbling block in Japan. Surprisingly, "Jackson...
Takanori Oguiss: the Japanese Utrillo

Takanori Oguiss: the Japanese Utrillo

When I first saw the oil paintings of Paris by the Japanese artist, Takanori Oguiss (1901-1986), I was strangely reminded of the neutron...
Shinsui Ito: An Eye for the Ladies

Shinsui Ito: An Eye for the Ladies

Yubi 1922 Shinsui Ito (1898-1972) was a central figure during Japan's artistic identity crisis in the 20th century. As wave after...
The Bewitching Art of Fuyuko Matsui

The Bewitching Art of Fuyuko Matsui

Photo: C.B.Liddell There's something bewitching about Fuyuko Matsui. I mean that in both senses of the word. Yes, she's rathe...
Belgium's Bicultural Heart of Darkness

Belgium's Bicultural Heart of Darkness

Ghent, Evening (1903) by Albert Baertsoen Looking at the Tokyo listings, I see that there are a couple of exhibitions focusing on bygo...
George Segal: Standing Out from the Crowd

George Segal: Standing Out from the Crowd

Art does not exist in a neat little bubble. Contemporary events, like the devastating terrorist attack on America, effect the way we ...
Greek Sculpture: The Naked and the Divine

Greek Sculpture: The Naked and the Divine

How many of the artworks being made today will stand the test of time and still be appreciated more than 2,000 years in the future — as...
Hubert Robert: The Power of the Past

Hubert Robert: The Power of the Past

Modernity is characterized by a linear concept of time, with the past cast in the role of an ever-diminishing point on the horizon behi...
Harue Koga: The Art of Assimilating Western Styles

Harue Koga: The Art of Assimilating Western Styles

Fireworks The curse of early Western-style Japanese painters is the charge of derivativeness. Simply because they embraced foreign art...
Undressing the Myth Behind Goya

Undressing the Myth Behind Goya

What courage! On first appraisal, it might seem that the organizers have brought the wrong Maja to Japan for the exhibition "Go...
Drawing: The Fourth Horseman

Drawing: The Fourth Horseman

Rules are Made to be Broken: Gervex, Renoir, Cezanne & Picasso

Rules are Made to be Broken: Gervex, Renoir, Cezanne & Picasso

Woman Seated in an Armchair, 1923 Nowadays an artist has complete freedom to paint, carve, construct, install, or simply do whateve...
Isamu Noguchi: To Touch the Earth

Isamu Noguchi: To Touch the Earth

The Law of Unintended Consequences interferes with the way the World is supposed to be, but it can also throw a spanner in the works of ...
American Impressionists: Following Monet to the Country

American Impressionists: Following Monet to the Country

Self Portait (1896), F.W. MacMonnies The charm of Impressionism was that it allowed a great deal of artistic freedom and expressivenes...
Vermeer and the Delft Style

Vermeer and the Delft Style

Something "New" From the 17th Century Because of the tight loop of Japan's media and information sources, audiences her...
Ryusei Kishida: Innovation and Exploration

Ryusei Kishida: Innovation and Exploration

Kishida’s short but brilliant career When Japan opened up to the West after the Meiji Revolution, it had a lot of catching up to d...
Czartoryski Collection: East Meets West, with Leonardo in a starring role

Czartoryski Collection: East Meets West, with Leonardo in a starring role

When it comes to artistic reputations, nobody except perhaps Michelangelo ranks quite as high in the pantheon of art as Leonardo da Vinci. ...
Crossing the Line: The Vienna Secession

Crossing the Line: The Vienna Secession

Fatalism (1893) by Jan Toorop Our idea of the fin de siècle avant-garde artist is of an impoverished outcast, ignored by the est...
Merzbacher Collection: Unleashing the Power of Colour

Merzbacher Collection: Unleashing the Power of Colour

The Beak of the Eagle, La Ciotat (1907) The keynote of the exhibition at the Yasuda Kasai Museum [ *now renamed the Sompo Japan Muse...

Ceramic Artists