Review：Exhibition Series
　"Trends in Contemporary Japanese Art" No. 4

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Review：Exhibition Series
　"Trends in Contemporary Japanese Art" No. 4

　　The exhibition series entitled “Trends in Contemporary Japanese Art” (later renamed as “Bird’s Eye View of Contemporary Japanese Art”) had been regularly held at our museum for 15 years since the museum’s opening in 1963. The fourth exhibition of the series was held from June 18 to July 25, 1965. The exhibition, which had the same subtitle "Paintings and Sculptures" as the previous exhibition, featured 95 works of art – 62 paintings by 28 artists, and 33 works by 16 sculptors. In the foreword of the exhibition catalogue, there was a remark that the works of highly ambitious new or mainstay artists who had demonstrated particular motivation during the past year (in other words, a relatively young generation of artists) were aggressively selected. In actuality, many of the artists whose works were featured in the exhibition were in their early 30s. The youngest of all was Takiguchi Masaru, who was born in 1941, and was at that time a graduate student of Kyoto City University of Fine Arts (currently Kyoto City University of Arts). Compared with today, there were far fewer museums of modern art in those days, and the existence of such exhibition meant a great deal for those mainstay, and young and up-and-coming artists.

　　Inui Yoshiaki, then the museum’s chief curator described the artwork screening process in an article in the "Mainichi Shimbun" newspaper as follows: "The screening was done from the perspective whether the artist was successful in creating works with fresh imagination and creativity." Because of this, paintings with cartoon-like expression (such as the works of Okamoto Shinjiro and Chuma Yasufumi) and those comprised of detailed geometric patterns with visual appeal (such as the works of Komatsu Yutaka and Miyazaki Manpei) were selected. Reviews of the previous exhibition commented that paintings no longer seemed to serve as a media which expressed or conveyed any "image," rather they appeared to have become "events" or "codes" in themselves. With focus on the detailed expressions of technique, the paintings on display in this exhibition seem to have strived for the deconstruction of the surface and framework of the paintings.

　　According to Suzuki Kenji, one of the curators in charge of the exhibition, sculpture has apparently followed this same trend – the properties and texture of the materials became much more important, and the spatial reasoning and concept became richer and more liberated. Regarding the focus on "technique" and "materials" in the process of creating artwork, the art journalist Fuji Yoshiyuki gave a favorable comment in the exhibition review printed in the "Kyoto Shimbun" newspaper, stating that one could feel "the utmost antithesis toward existing art" and "a feeling similar to frustration toward stagnant contemporary art." On the other hand, the art critic Nakamura Keiji commented that "compared with the previous exhibition which had many works of 'anti-art,' there was a gentle feeling permeating this exhibition, and it lacked in a sense of alarm and urgency. It seemed as if a nihilistic aria was resonating." His remarks could be regarded as harsh criticism not only toward this exhibition in particular, but also toward the entire art world in general, at a period when the "Yomiuri Independent Exhibition," which had shaken the prevailing art concepts to the core, had just been discontinued.

　　Among the artwork exhibited in this exhibition, only 3 works belong to the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, specifically the 2 pieces by Chuma Yasufumi which appeared on the front cover of the collection catalogue and 1 work by Asada Hiroshi. However, the reconstructed works of Takasaki Motonao which were included in the exhibition, and a portion of the exhibited works by Miyazaki Manpei are housed in our museum. Moreover, some contemporary work by the exhibited artists is also housed here. These works were not collected at the time of the exhibition, but 10-20 years afterward, and even 50 years after in certain cases. This fact reflects the difficulties in preserving and procuring appropriate artwork while taking into consideration budgetary restraints and the practical capacity of our storage for collection, as well as the complexity of coordinating our exhibitions and collection activities.