Yokohama Museum of Art

Yokohama Museum of Art

Yokohama Museum of Art (横浜美術館, Yokohama Bijutsukan), founded in 1989, is located in the futuristic Minato Mirai 21 district of Yokohama city next to the Yokohama Landmark Tower, the tallest building in Japan.

The collections

The museum has works by many influential and well-known modern artists including Constantin Brâncuşi, Paul Cézanne, Salvador Dalí, Jimmy Ernst, René Magritte, Henri Matisse, Ossip Zadkine, and Pablo Picasso. Dadaist and Surrealist works are especially well represented.

The museum also features work by important Japanese artists, especially those with connections to Yokohama such as Imamura Shiko, Kanzan Shimomura, and Chizuko Yoshida. Other artists whose work has appeared at the museum include Kiyoshi Hasegawa, Yasumasa Morimura and Lee Ufan

Special exhibits

• In 2004 the museum hosted a major Marcel Duchamp exhibition entitled "Marcel Duchamp and the 20th Century Art". The exhibit attracted a long list of corporate sponsors including Asahi Shimbun, Dai Nippon Printing, Japan Airlines, Japan Broadcasting Corporation, Kanagawa Shimbun, Keihin Electric Express Railway and Television Kanagawa.

• Also in 2004, the museum hosted "Paradise Lost: The Politics of Landscape (1870-1945)", an exhibition described as an "attempt to show the changing nature of landscape expression in painting and photography as practiced in Europe, the United States, Japan, and the East Asia during the seventy years from the age of Impressionism through the end of World War II."

• In 2005, the museum hosted "Masterpieces from the Louvre Museum: 19th Century French Paintings – from Neoclassicism to Romanticism". The exhibit was arranged in cooperation with the Louvre and Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music.

• In 2006, the museum featured a special exhibit entitled " Connecting the World through Sculpture" featuring the work of Isamu Noguchi, Japanese American artist and landscape architect.

• In 2008, the museum featured an exhibition of images from the goth subculture entitled "Goth: Reality of the Departed World". The exhibit included featured works by Avant-garde artists such as Dr Lakra and Pyuupiru.

The building

The building which houses the Yokohama Museum of Art was designed by Kenzo Tange, the Japanese architect who won the 1987 Pritzker Prize for architecture. The structure is described as an "attractive and spacious building " that is "airy and well-lit".

The museum's main hall is 18 meters tall and is open to the second and third floors. A glass ceiling allows natural light into the space. Louvers control the light levels. It has supurb acoustics, is often used for new art projects and cultural events, and is said to be a "particularly impressive" example of modern architecture.

The building is apportioned as follows:

First Floor

• lecture hall
• parking garage

Second Floor

• galleries (including the Grand Gallery described above)
• Children's Workshop (consists of a multipurpose studio, a craft studio and an audiovisual studio for use by children ages 4 to 12)
• restaurant serving French cuisine
• museum store (sells postcards and other goods featuring art in the museum, framed paintings, art supplies, etc.)

Third Floor

• Additional galleries (include a photography gallery)
• Art Archive Center (a quiet and spacious study room with a collection of Japanese and foreign art art books, art catalogs, and art magazines; also has facilities to make photocopies and conduct on-line searches)
• Citizen's Workshop (used for lectures and study groups as well work in flat media, three-dimensional media, and printmaking)

Sakuragicho Station provides to public transportation access to museum and the surrounding area by way of the Minatomirai Line and the Yokohama Municipal Subway Line.

External links

• Yokohama Museum of Art (in English)
• Yokohama Museum of Art (in Japanese)