For the 3rd edition of the “Re-collection” series introducing the great diversity of the museum’s permanent collection, two exhibitions, “Takeo YAMAGUCHI” and “Words from the Collection” are held concurrently.
In the exhibition “Takeo YAMAGUCHI,” the art of the important figure in the world of modern and contemporary Japanese painting, Takeo Yamaguchi (1902-83), will be presented from a number of perspectives with eight oil paintings, watercolors and works of painted ceramics. In “Words from the Collection,” the exhibition will be composed of four sections that explore the letters and words appearing in the works and episodes about the artists and the models they depicted. We hope that visitors will find new appreciation of the stories woven by the words from these works.

Takeo Yamaguchi
On display in gallery 202 during this exhibition are works of Takeo Yamaguchi (1902-83), a painter who left an exceptional artistic heritage in the modern and contemporary periods of Japanese art. Born in the city that is today Seoul, Rep. of Korea (with Japanese citizen registration in Kagoshima, Pref.), Yamaguchi graduated from the Tokyo Fine Arts School and then traveled to France to continue art activities with other Japanese painters such as Yuzo Saeki and Takanori Ogisu, after which he returned to Seoul to pursue his career as a painter. In this period Yamaguchi participated as a member of the avant-garde group Kyu-shitsu Kai within the Nika Kai (Nika Association). Returning to Japan after World War II, He developed an individual painting style employing mostly monochromatic use of black, reddish brown or ochre oil paint applied to the canvas with a unique method that won him recognition for artistic excellence in Japan and abroad. 

Although his works are abstract in nature, they were the product of extensive observation or contact with some figurative subject matter, resulted in a great depth of substance and appeal that differentiates them from Western abstract painting. This exhibition presents a selection of eight oil paintings and works in watercolor and painted ceramics ranging from early works of the 1930s to those of the artist’s mature period in the 1960s and ’70s to provide a multi-faceted view of the art of Takeo Yamaguchi.

Words from the Collection
Words are an integral part of art museums, playing important their roles in exhibition leaflets, collection catalogs, gallery talks, headset audio guides and the captions beside the works on the gallery walls. Using words to connect the viewer to a work of art can be considered one of the primary roles of a museum. When we stand in front of works in the galleries, there are also times when our thoughts and feelings roam freely in realms beyond those of the words that the museum has given us and we want to communicate our experience to someone in spoken or written words. Doesn’t the museum offer a wonderful range of possibilities as a place where words are born of the encounter between the viewers and works of art? This exhibition focuses on letters, words and text in the works of the museum’s collection as keys that can open doors to a wealth of new images. We hope that visitors will find new enjoyment in the stories about works of art that are unlocked by the words found within them.

*image (left)
Hope-Kibo, 1973
Acrylic on canvas, 125x125cm
© Takeo Yamaguchi
courtesy of Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art