Louvre Museum: Genre Painting – Scenes from Daily Life

One of my favourite things about Tokyo is that there are always some great exhibitions featuring masterpieces from around the world, and the ones I must see are the paintings by Johannes Vermeer.  Of course, I didn't miss the chance to see his The Astronomer that is touring Japan now at The National Center of Art, Tokyo.

The paintings from the show, Louvre Museum: Genre Painting – Scenes from Daily Life, depicts exactly that--paintings of the everyday life.  Besides The Astronomer, several other works stood out and stole my heart per se, Jean-Baptiste Greuze's The Broken Pitcher, Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot's The Studio of Corot, and Martin Drolling's Interior of a Kitchen.

However, there was one that made me laugh and thought of myself, and that was The Monkey Painter, aka Interior of a Studio by Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps.  Yes, I can just as well be that monkey, though am thinking he probably paints better than me!!

Louvre Museum: Genre Painting – Scenes from Daily Life is on now until Mon Jun 1.  Please visit it, and say hi to Decamps' monkey for me!

www.ntv.co.jp/louvre2015/
www.nact.jp/

Esprit Dior

Christian Dior is one of the true master of modern fashion, and inspiration of my illustrations, especially for Lala.  It might be an overstatement, but she is my version of "Miss Dior", a little adorable, with a of touch elegance, and playfulness mixed in.

Was extremely excited when I first saw the big windows of the exhibition building announcing the show back in September (see the screen shot at the end of the post).  I finally had the time to see the retrospective show last week and it was simply wonderful.

On display was the famous, gaming changing the "Bar" outfit from 1947 of Christian Dior's debut the "New Look" collection along with numerous other classics and significant pieces, beauty items and accessories. There was even a leather craftsman giving a live demonstration of how a Lady Dior bag is made and craftswomen adding the final touches to each bottle of Dior perfumes bottles. Of course, the show featured photographs by famed fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier. To sum it all up, there was a library on the top floor of the show--there are 4 floors in total.

You have to understand that it was created as an educational marketing opportunity for the House of Dior geared towards the Japanese audience, so not everything was about the House was included. I really wished they had more to talk about Yves Saint Laurent and John Gaillano. However, given that it was free admission, and extremely well thought out, it is a must-see if you are in the Ginza area.  Esprit Dior is on now until Sun Jan 4, 2015.

http://www.dior.com/couture/en_gb/the-house-of-dior/exhibitions/esprit-dior

Citizen Light Is Time

It's snowing gold! I have been wanting to see the "Light is Time" installation by Citizen (yes, the famous Japanese watchmaker) ever since early October, when I first saw the flyer.  Finally experienced it on its opening night on Fri Nov 14, and it was so beautiful I went back again a few days later.  I used the word "experience" because that is exactly what it was--a spellbinding, awe-inspiring installation that was made out of 6,5000 watch movements!

It first premiered in Milan for Tokyo Designers Week back in April, winning two awards for "Best Entertaining" and "Best Sound", and was recently recreated for the Spiral Building in Tokyo.  By popular demanding the initial 10-day run was extended for an extra 4, until Fri Nov 28.

It is unfortunately over now.  However, it is a wonderful gift that remains with me, and has inspired me to work harder creatively.

citizen.jp/topics/2014/20141017.html
www.spiral.co.jp/e_schedule/detail_1256.html

Spring 2014 Tokyo Art Roundup

One of the reasons I love Tokyo is the numerous great art exhibitions they have!  Here is a list of major art exhibitions I attended from Jan 2014 till now, with some short comments on each.

Past Exhibitions

Tokujin Yoshioka Crystallize at the Museum of Contemporary Arts of Tokyo:

I love the MOT building, and it is one of my favourite space in Tokyo.  So, decided it was a good and relaxing way to ring in 2014 by visiting it and seeing "Crystalize".  I am not a huge fan or modern and installation art, but liked his work that I saw a couple of years back at Mori Art Museum's "Sensing Nature".

I was a little disappointed in the limited number of pieces on display, but overall, I enjoyed my time there, cause the space and his works provided me with a sense of pure positive clarity, and calmness that I often lack in my everyday life.

www.mot-art-museum.jp/eng/2013/tokujin_yoshioka

Andy Warhol 15 Minutes of Eternal at the Mori Art Museum:

A truly extensive retrospective.  I don't think that you have to appreciate his work or style, but you do get an insight into his brilliant commercial (i.e. money) drive creative mind.

You would never get any museum-zen from this exhibition, since it was definitely an overwhelming and stimulating one!  Best of all, attendees got to see one of my favourite cars--the old school BMW M1, the inspiration of the BMW 8 series back in the day, that Warhol painted!

www.mori.art.museum/contents/andy_warhol/index.html

The Beautiful at Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum:

Just as the name of the show suggested, everything was beautiful about it.  There was not one thing that wasn't beautiful on display.  It was the highlight of Edwardian era's obsession with beauty, and not in a bad way.  I love the Edwardian period, as with the Art Nouveau, be it art, jewellery, or fashion.

The show really was "art of art's sake".  You can call me vain or overly romantic, but I would still tell you, I liked it.  My favourite piece was Mother and Child (Cherries) by Frederick Leighton.  Was lucky that I got to see the exhibition on its very last day!

mimt.jp/beautiful/

Ongoing Exhibitions

The 800th Memorial of Yosai Roots of Zen: Yosai and the Treasures of Kenninji at the Tokyo National Museum until Sun May 18 (today's the last day!)

It has been over ten years since I last saw the national treasure, Wind and Thunder Gods screens by Tawaraya Sotatsu at the old Suntory Museum when I was first in Japan.  Am happy to have gotten free tickets and see the the screens again.  I will be honest though, I don't know too much about the history of Buddhism in Japan nor have lots of interest manual scripts and scrolls without images.

What was impressive was seeing various paintings by Kaiho Yusho.  When I first started art, I was learning Chinese watercolour and ink painting, so I understand the difficulty and beauty of his work.  His strokes were strong, beautiful, brave, and his sense of balance/usage of tones was amazing.  Unlike Western oil or even watercolour paintings, there is no way to correct anything you do.  You really have to see his work in person to appreciated it.  I was also very happy to see the famous Plum Tree and Rooster in Snow by Ito Jakuchu.

yosai2014.jp

Balthus: a Retrospective at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum until Sun Jun 22:

A highly skilled artist, with a slight dark side--seeing his scary looking cats and some of the blank eyes of his figures easily gives that away. But if you are in need of a dose of classic yet modern art, please see this show.  Some of his pieces reminds me of Japanese manga (comic books) and anime (animation).  And if you go, try to spot his usage of triangle-shaped leg positions of his subjects--it really stands out!

balthus2014.jp