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In all ages and lands, political authorities have utilized the power of art to show and maintain their power. This exhibition will retrospect the history of art's relationship with power through some 60 artworks from Egypt, Europe, India, China, Japan, and other regions.
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Presenting some 450 carefully selected ukiyo-e prints from the Ōta Memorial Museum of Art, Japan Ukiyo-e Museum, and Hiraki Ukiyo-e Foundation, what are reputed to be the three great collections of ukiyo-e in Japan both in quality and volume. We invite you to enjoy famed works by representative ukiyo-e master artists of all periods from the 17th through 19th centuries.
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This project, operated in conjunction with Tokyo University of the Arts, is aimed at fostering an active, open art community with the Museum as a central stage. The project is led by art communicators (“Tobira”), who are given responsibility for growing a community.
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A program linking all 9 cultural facilities in Ueno Park to support children in their "museum debut." The program provides a "flat" learning environment where adults and children learn on an equal basis. Through experiences of seeing, listening, and speaking, children come to understand the fun and excitement of visiting an art museum.
Vilhelm Hammershøi
Interior
1898, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm / Photo: Nationalmuseum
Depicted here is the interior of Hammershøi’s accommodations in London, where he resided from October 1897 to May of ’98. Although his lodgings in London were temporary, the painting’s motifs and expressive qualities—the woman with her back turned, simple home furnishings, calm light filling the interior, and tranquil atmosphere—remind us of an interior painting of his own house.
Hammershøi painted this work for a client unknown to him, a “well-to-do Swede living in London” who he heard was hopeful of buying his work. The client, whom Hammershøi looked forward to meeting, turned out to be the Swedish businessman Löwenadler, who finally visited the artist and purchased the work near the end of Hammershøi’s stay in London.
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Vilhelm Hammershøi
From a Farm, Refsnæs
1900, The David Collection, Copenhagen
Depicted is the farmhouse in Refsnæs where Hammershøi and his wife Ida stayed during the summer of 1900. The black thatched roofs contrast crisply with the white plaster walls. A plume of smoke rising straight into the sky informs us of the absence of wind. This work, in which the artist has crystallized clarity, simplicity, and the delicate interaction of light and shadow, is among the works displaying Hammershøi’s artistic aims most lucidly. Under bright, transparent light, the farmhouse takes on an aura of unreality, as if the light were its sole resident.
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Vilhelm Hammershøi
Young Beech Forest, Frederiksværk
1904, The David Collection, Copenhagen
A landscape painted in summer 1904 when Hammershøi stayed in Frederiksværk in northern Zealand. The soft light flooding the dim forest is richly and delicately nuanced in tones of grey, green, and brown. Meanwhile, the slender, dark trunks—which are depicted flatly—have a strange presence amid the backlighting, and the sloped ground conveys an impression of instability. Hammershøi, with rare exceptions, took his easel outdoors and painted from actual landscapes. The misty scene in this work, however, suggests not observation of nature so much as the pleasant dreaminess of a landscape of memory.
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Vilhelm Hammershøi
Interior with Potted Plant, Bredgade 25
1910-11, Malmö Art Museum, Sweden
Depicted—the interior of Hammershøi’s house at Bredgade 25. Unlike many paintings of the artist’s late years, which portray interiors having spatial depth, this work displays the decorative arrangement of motifs in a shallow space that characterized his interiors of the late 1890s and early 1900s. Its flat composition was perhaps intended to accent the organic form of the potted plant on the table. The painting’s delicate, warm colors, on the other hand, are typical of his work of the late 1900s and 1910s. The painting, which fuses the artist’s refined formal sense and mature vision, is among Hammershøi’s most highly finished late-period interiors.
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Peder Severin Krøyer
Summer Evening at the South Beach, Skagen. Anna Ancher and Marie Krøyer
1893, © The Hirschsprung Collection
In the 1890s, Krøyer began painting canvases enveloped in the blue light of summer dusk. This work depicts his wife, Marie, walking on a beach under the pale evening light with Anna Ancher, a foremost painter of the Skagen school. When first visiting Skagen, Krøyer often painted fishermen working in the harsh natural environment there. Gradually, however, his interested shifted to his interactions with fellow artists and the distinctive scenery of Skagen and, above all, its light. Krøyer’s lyrical and beautiful ”blue paintings” contributed to Skagen’s image as a scenic place rich in artistic atmosphere, so that even more people felt compelled to visit this small fishing town.
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Viggo Johansen
Silent Night
1891, © The Hirschsprung Collection
A scene of the Johansen family on Christmas Eve. Forming a circle around the shimmering, candlelit tree are the painter’s wife Martha (back turned), her childhood friend, and the couple’s six children. At the rear of the picture, his son Fritz holds hands with someone behind the tree, possibly Johansen himself. Gathering with family and friends to hold hands while singing and dancing around the Christmas tree is a Danish custom observed even today. This work has enjoyed popularity among Danes as a delightfully warm and beautiful image of domestic hyyge.
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