Paul Delvaux: the Stuff that Dreams are Made of
Aurora, 1964 Once you see the paintings of Paul Delvaux you are unlikely to forget them. The dreamlike mood and quaint atmosphere is ...
Modigliani & Hebuterne
Modigliani and Jeanne Hebuterne were the Pete Doherty and Kate Moss of their generation. Just like the former Babyshambles singer, Mod...
Revamped MoMAT Opens with Unfinished Business
The Tale of Akebono Village (1953) As the first exhibition since its renovation, the Museum of Modern Art Tokyo (MOMAT) has arranged...
The Mindscapes of De Chirico
Two Horses by a Lake With an exhibition including the work of Rene Magritte and Paul Delvaux coming to the Isetan next month and the c...
Heritage of the Roman Empire
The NMWA asks, 'What did the Romans ever do for us?' Anyone who’s ever seen the Monty Python movie Life of Brian will rem...
The Spiritual Displacement of Kumi Machida
Relation, 2006 An exhibition of art by Kumi Machida will leave your head full of odd impressions and ideas that don’t quite fit tog...
Breaking the Da Vinci Code of Italian Inventiveness
This year, thanks to the cultural promotion campaign "Italy in Japan 2001," we have had ample opportunity to admire Ital...
Preview: Perugino
While Leonardo da Vinci was busy inventing absurd machines, scribbling cryptic doodles in his notebooks, and neglecting his enormous gi...
Ai Weiwei: Drab Minimalism and Toothless Iconoclasm
Forever, Bicycles , 2003 The term "art," if it does anything at all, should greatly raise expectations. Going to see it, we ...
The Strangely Beautiful Art of Chen Man
"Red Lotus" (detail) Echoing the pan-Asian theme of this year’s Art Fair Tokyo, which was held earlier this month, Shibuya’...
Rouault: Shadows in the Sawdust
Pierrot Aristocrate, 1941-2 Paris in its heyday — between one set of Germans marching in (1871) and another (1940) — is one of those f...
Collection: "My Dream, I Was Just Raped" by Monoko Hanasaki
The best opportunity to buy good value art in Japan is at Design Festa, a vast art fair that takes place several times a year, usuall...
Henry Darger: Outsider Inside His Own World
Outsider artists often present a pathetic spectacle to the rest of the world: forgotten inmates of mental institutions, shuffling, mutt...
Giacometti and Yanaihara
A special friendship. Alberto Giacometti (1901 – 1966) is widely considered the greatest sculptor of the 20th century. Originally att...
Treasures by Rinpa Masters
Wind God by Ogata Korin Korin and Co. show another dimension of traditional Japanese art When it comes to appreciating traditio...
Drawing: "Dr. Drankenstein"
One of my charcoal sketches that I did during the Xmas/ New Year break of 2012/13. The theme is a rather obvious vampire, with his cas...
A Michelangelo Appetizer
Cleopatra This has been quite a year for fans of Renaissance art in Japan, with all three of its giants — Leonardo da Vinci, Raph...
Rembrandt: A Subtle Artist Who Glows in the Dark
Minerva in Her Study, 1635 Recently, thanks to the power cuts caused by the damage to the Fukushima nuclear reactors, many of us ha...
Hisashi Tenmyouya: Samurai with a Paintbrush
Para-para (Great Empire of Japan) vs. Break-dancing (America) (2001) One of the strangest and most interesting characteristics of ...
Chardin: Stooping to Conquer
Saying Grace The Mitsubichi Ichigokan Museum is deceptive in more ways than one. Not only is it a lot younger than it looks – it was ...
KEN YABUNO: EUROPA RE-REMEMBERED
Everything Appears If You Stand Still (2005) The Fascist dictator Generalissimo Francisco Franco may not have been everybody's c...
Hisashi Tenmyouya: Neo-Nihonga Retro-Yakuza Pastiche
Good artists, like good DJs, know what to throw together to get something fresh going. This is especially true of Neo-Nihonga artists l...
The Balanced Eroticism of Titian's Venus
In a modern era, in which recreational sex, low birthrates, fractured relationships, and sexual commodification are commonplace, the so...
Nishiki–e Outshine Chinese Prints
"Plum Garden at Kameido" by Hiroshige Utagawa "The Birth of Nishiki–e," the current exhibition at the Ota Memoria...
El Greco: My Big, Skinny Greek Painting
The Virgin of the Immaculate Conception Tokyo seems crowded with Old Masters these days. Rubens is at the Bunkamura; Raphael is at th...
Vincent van Gogh: Mad Artist Myth No Longer Holds
The Sower (1888) When you say the name Vincent van Gogh, you invariably invoke a legend, the legend of a wild, purely creative genius...
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Blog for art's sake...
"Most people in America think Art is a man's name." ― Andy Warhol
The official blog of world-renowned art journalist Colin Liddell
