A 100 years ago in 1926, the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum (then known as “Tokyo Prefectural Art Museum”) opened in Ueno Park as Japan’s first public art museum. This exhibition will look comprehensively at creative activities undertaken in three different places during those 100 years.
Part One, “Ueno—The Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum’s 100 years,” surveys the decades from the Museum’s start in Ueno to the present with a focus on the wide-ranging exhibitions it hosted and diverse scenes that unfolded in its park surroundings. Part Two, “Omuta—EGAMI Shigeo’s 100 years,” examines the painting career of Egami Shigeo (1912-2014), who lived his entire life in one place—the Kyushu coal mining towns Omuta and Arao—ceaselessly painting its landscapes. Part Three, “Buenos Aires—Garden Full of Zinnias’s 100 years,” looks at the newly founded museum’s first acquisition, painted in 1926, Garden Full of Zinnias, and follows the story of a man who immigrated to Argentina from Japan and he and his family members’ lives with “paintings” and “flowers.”
Ueno, which has been a stage for expositions and exhibitions and a home to cultural facilities since the modern era, is regarded as Japan’s hub for modern and contemporary art. This exhibition, by tracing the 100 years of the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum and Ueno as a center where countless people have gathered, and in parallel, the passionate creative endeavors of individuals in distant places, will transcend the framework of “center-periphery” to bring the essential meaning of art expression into relief.
What can an art museum do as a place that supports people in their desire to “live a better life”? While contemplating views of three places, we want to ponder our next 100 years.