德山 拓一
Form Follows Shadow, Sound Responds to Echo
Hirofumi Isoya
Kobayakawa Shūsei
Suzuki Osamu
Takeuchi Seihō
Tanaka Isson
Tsuchida Bakusen
For the 9th installment of Ginza Curator’s Room, we are pleased to welcome Tokuyama Hirokazu from the Mori Art Museum to present Form Follows Shadow, Sound Responds to Echo.
This exhibition will feature a new series of works by artist Hirofumi Isoya. Inspired by pieces from the Shibunkaku collection such as Japanese paintings from the Taishō and Shōwa periods, and ceramics by the post-war avant-garde group, Sōdeisha, Isoya has created innovative works using these historical artifacts both as “materials” and “tools.”
2024.9.2 Mon. — 2024.9.14 Sat.
Closed on Sunday
10:00 — 18:00
Shibunkaku Ginza
Ichibankan-Building
5-3-12 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061, Japan
Tokuyama Hirokazu
Ginza Curators Room is pleased to present a new series by Hirofumi Isoya, who was informed by works from Shibunkaku’s collection such as Japanese paintings from the Taishō and Shōwa period and ceramics from the post-war avant-garde ceramic movement Sōdeisha to reinterpret them as “materials” and “tools.” In this series, Isoya adopts what may be described as a violent intervention, going beyond referencing or reinterpreting the work of his predecessors who had pioneered new forms of expression throughout periods of turbulent change from the Meiji to the post-war eras.
The exhibition title is inspired by the Buddhist term “effect,” which comes from the Buddhist concept of causation. Buddhism defines bodhisattvas who appear as shadows and echoes as “guides,” implying that “as a shadow follows a form and an echo responds to a sound, such causal relationships form and respond swiftly.” This series is a bold thought experiment where, Isoya, as a descendant of these pioneers or as their causal “shadow” and “echo,” instead challenges reworking to their “form” and making their “sound” respond. In addition, for Isoya who has previously focused on “the flow of time,” as an important theme, particularly on its irreversibility through photography, this exhibition serves as an experiment that suggests the present changes the past and aspires to create something new with the past.
Tokuyama Hirokazu
Served as curator at the Kyoto City University of Arts ART GALLERY @KCUA from 2012 prior to joining the Mori Art Museum in April 2016. Curated exhibitions at @KCUA include: killing time (2016), a Guido van der Werve solo exhibition; NA (2016), a Yuki Okumura solo exhibition; PHOTOPHOBIA(2014), an Apichatpong Weerasethakul solo exhibition. Curated exhibitions at Mori Art Museum include: SUNSHOWER: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia 1980s to Now (2017); MAM Project 025: Apichatpong Weerasethakul + Hisakado Tsuyoshi (2018); Roppongi Crossing 2019: Connexions (2019); Listen to the Sound of the Earth Turning: Our Wellbeing since the Pandemic (2022); Theaster Gates: Afro-Mingei (2024). Visiting Professor at Tohoku University of Art & Design.
Hirofumi Isoya
Born in Tokyo, his works explore the plurality of perception and the manifold nature of time through the mediums of photography, sculpture, and drawing. His recent solo exhibitions include: “Find Your Verb,” Koumi-machi Kougen Museum of Art, Nagano, 2022; “Go, go, go, said the bird: humankind cannot bear very much reality,” SCAI PIRAMIDE, Tokyo, 2021. He has also participated in group exhibitions such as: “Constellations: Photographs in Dialogue,” SFMOMA, San Francisco, 2021; “L’image et son double,” Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2021; and “Roppongi Crossing 2019: Connexions,” Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2019.
Kobayakawa Shūsei
(nihonga painter; 1887-1974)
Nihonga painter born in Hyogo Prefecture. Shūsei dropped out of the Kyoto Municipal School of Painting (now Kyoto City University of Arts) and studied privately with the nihonga painter Taniguchi Kōkyō and, later, Yamamoto Shunkyo. A member of the Sanae-kai art association, Shūsei regularly exhibited at the Bunten and Teiten exhibitions. He traveled abroad widely and used these opportunities to study Western and Asian art. He was enlisted during the war as a military painter. After 1945, Kobayakawa turned his attention towards religious subject matter.
Suzuki Osamu
(ceramist; 1926–2001)
Suzuki was born in Kyoto to a family of ceramists. With like-minded artists Yagi Kazuo and Yamada Hikaru, he co-founded the avant-garde ceramic group Sōdei-sha (Crawling through Mud Association) in 1948. Suzuki challenged the utilitarian attitude of traditional ceramics with his non-functional objects which he termed deizō or deishō (“clay figures” or “clay forms”). He served as a professor at the Kyoto City University of the Arts and was honored with the Asahi Award of Excellence in 1999.
Takeuchi Seihō
(nihonga painter; 1864–1942)
Nihonga painter, born in Kyoto. Seihō graduated from the Kyoto Prefectural School of Painting where he had studied under Tsuchida Eirin and Kōno Bairei. Together with Yokoyama Taikan and Kawai Gyokudō, he is considered one of the leading figures of the Nihonga movement of the early twentieth century. In addition to an immense corpus of works, Seihō taught many young artists and made important contributions the modernization of Japanese painting. Bunten (Japan Art Academy Exhibition) jury member and receiver of the Order of Culture in 1937.
Tanaka Isson
(nihonga painter; 1908–1977)
Nihonga painter from Tochigi Prefecture, son of the sculptor Tanaka Yakichi (Tōson). Intrigued by literati painting, Isson enrolled at the Tokyo Fine Arts School around the same time as fellow painters Higashiyama Kaii and Hashimoto Meiji but dropped out three months later. Isson was able to exhibit his works at the Seiryūkai exhibitions, though he eventually severed his ties with the established art world. In 1958, he relocated to Amami Ōshima (south of Kyushu), where he concentrated on painting motifs inspired by the nature of the island.
Tsuchida Bakusen
(nihonga painter; 1887–1936)
Niigata-born nihonga painter. His real name is Kinji. A student of Suzuki Shōnen and Takeuchi Seihō. Graduated from the Kyoto Municiple Special School of Painting. Co-founded Kokuga Sosaku Kyokai (Association for the Creation of National Painting) with Murakami Kagaku, Ono Chikkyō, and Sakakibara Shihō in 1918. Active at Bunten (Ministry of Education Art Exhibition) after the dismember of Kokuga Sosaku Kyokai. His work attains a great balance between the Western style and traditional Japanese style, and embraces a sense of gracefulness and freshness. One of the most outstanding nihonga painter of his time. Member of Teikoku Bijutsuin (Imperial Fine Art Academy).