I've been busy some of the time. Exhibitions I recall going to since the last post are:
* le Corbusier and company exhibition I stumbled upon at the National Museum of Western Art, (mind-blowing; might go again);
* their permanent collection, though their van Gogh is in a show in Ottawa, Canada at the mo;
* an exhibition of collections from the Louvre, which I just assumed were paintings, but turned out to be historical artifacts, 4000 years of the Mediterranean, which I would have been interested if had I been prepared but I just ran through this one, but I did stop by two Byzantine tile work from Roman floors, (did I say it right?);
* permanent collection of dinosaur bones hung beautifully at the National Science Museum;
* permanent collection at the Bridgestone Museum, (their van Gogh was not as fabulous as his post-Paris work);
* an industrial design exhibition at the Setagaya Art Museum way in the boondocks, because I misread the brochure advertising Japonisme paintings from Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. That exhibition takes place a year from now and will include this van Gogh piece;
* and a hilarious "So-en fashion magazine annual student awards since 1956" show, which included student work by Kenzo and one other Big Name even I recognized;
* more Rodin and Moore sculptures than I care to recall;
* and more than enough dioramas and recreations of old rooms and portions of buildings at history museums large and small around Tokyo.
And I saw two live panda bears for the first time at the Ueno Zoo.
.JPG)
My niece came to stay overnight; she's a bright, lively one. After she went home, I got sick and was out of action for five days.
As regards that Cubism thing, I go to my last, sixth session on Sunday, so I'll have to summarize what when on in there after I go home. Because I'm still not sure if I'm making progress there.
I finished weaving the white "Snowflake" piece; it took me five pieces on the Ashford table looms to learn how to control the tension and beating on them, and now I'm finished. I still hope to dye two pieces of cloth a second time, but I can't decide what to do with one.
I've been working on the very last "postcards"; I hope to send them out before the end of this week.
4 comments:
I guess it doesn't cost an arm and a leg to get into museums in Japan, then...like it does here and elsewhere. I'm glad you've seen so many awesome exhibits. Bet you're glad to be going home...talk soon from there. xo
My goodness, what a lot of culture! Your head must be reeling from it all. Or perhaps your head is stronger than mine...
We just saw a le Corbusier exhibit at MOMA in New York. What genius! I can see how one might apply many of his concepts to weaving, although my head hurts to think upon it for too long.
Exhibitions here are not nearly as expensive as they were in Europe in 2003. They are not cheap-cheap, but anything is cheaper than flying from Nelson to Australia for one exhibition, no matter how good. Plus, I got this 2-month pass for Y2000 that allowed me to go to gazillion Tokyo galleries for free or at a discount. (Pittance at some, but...) I used this to go to most shows, but the best exhibitions are still around Y1500. It's the trains, though, that are prohibitive, so I try to bunch together establishments that were close to each other and aimed at going to three in a give area. And then I digest and regurgitate for a couple of days before my next outing; collage and the Cubism class prep most definitely helped in this respect.
Believe it or not, if my brother didn't drop the kid here when he did, I had hoped to go to at least half a dozen more that week.
This le Corbusier exhibition, (which was an astounding Y420 at the national museum, which included a small Picasso exhibition and their permanent collections - you can't even buy coffee in Tokyo for that!!) was about his paintings and his artist friends and collection of paintings as well as his architecture and graphics work. This and the Surrealist exhibitions were the most attractive for me this summer. Pushkin and van Gogh were rich in their offerings but not as well-constructed as exhibitions in my mind.
There is, ahem, a Thunderbird, (yes, the puppets) exhibition at a science museum, and that's among the last ones I can't yet give up, but I may have run out of time for exhibitions.
Post a Comment