News

Announcement, July 2009
  Retirement: Mr. Ken’ichi IWAKI (Director, July 2005–June 2009)
  Appointment: Mr. Masaaki OZAKI (Director, July 2009–)


Mr. Ken’ichi Iwaki, who has been a driving force at the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto (MoMAK) for the past four years, has retired as the Director of MoMAK and an Executive Director of the Independent Administrative Institution National Museum of Art at the end of June 2009.  Mr. Iwaki is a Professor Emeritus and a former head of the Aesthetics Department at the Graduate School of Kyoto University.  His publications include Kansei-ron—Estutetikkusu (Aesthetics as a Theory of Aisthesis; 2001) and Gobyū-ron (Theory of “Paralogismen”; 2006).  Mr. Iwaki has also served as the president of the Japanese Society for Aesthetics, and his academic activities extend far and wide.
Under Mr. Iwaki’s direction, MoMAK has been able to organize many outstanding exhibitions.  The most notable example is Tsubaki Noboru: Gold/White/Black (Feb.–March 2009), an extremely unique exhibition that one may call a milestone in Japan.  Not only did Mr. Iwaki take personal initiative in its organization, he has also written an extensive academic essay for its catalogue and made the first steps toward what will be an unprecedented acquisition of a whole exhibition as a large-scale installation.  His further contributions in developing the academic side of MoMAK can also be seen in his founding of Cross Sections (link in Japanese only), a publication containing academic essays by MoMAK curators on their personal research as well as contributions from outside of the museum related to its exhibitions and other programs.  Mr. Iwaki has also overseen many other unprecedented projects at MoMAK, such as Mite, kangaete I and II (links in Japanese only) (Look, Think; April–May/Aug.–Sept. 2006) and Gallery Lab 2007 (Sept.–Nov. 2007), in which the museum’s Collection Gallery was turned into an experimental environment to explore new approaches to viewing art; a series of film screenings in cooperation with the National Film Center in Tokyo; “E-mail Debates,” or open discussions via e-mail with the general public culminating in symposiums, on the occasion of the exhibitions Modern Art in Wanderings: In Between the Japanese- and Western-style Paintings (Jan.–Feb. 2007) and the ASADA Hiroshi Retrospective (July–Sept. 2007); and Art Rules Kyoto 2008 (May 2008), the only Japanese version of the ongoing multidisciplinary performance/installation project by Chicks on Speed, Douglas Gordon and others.
Mr. Iwaki is deeply respected for his dedication, enthusiasm, collegiality, and academic expertise.  We wish him the very best in all of his endeavors.


It is our pleasure to announce the appointment of Mr. Masaaki Ozaki as the Director of MoMAK and an Executive Director of the Independent Administrative Institution National Museum of Art, effective July 1, 2009.  Before coming to MoMAK, he was the Deputy Director of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, where he has also held the position of Curator and then Chief Curator for many years.  His extensive experience as a curator of modern Japanese art will be invaluable to the museum’s activities.  Please join us in extending Mr. Ozaki a warm welcome to the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto.

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