The National Museum of Modern Art Kyoto

We went to the Modern Art Museum of Kyoto nearly two months ago to attend the Leonard (Tsugouharu) Foujita exhibition. Unfortunately, the visitors were not allowed to take pictures of the Foujita exhibition but we were allowed to take pictures (without flash) of the permanent collection.


Reflections (heavily contrasted)

The exhibition was held to commemorate the 120th birth anniversary of Foujita, who became famous in the Paris art circle with his nudes of "milk white skin". The exhibition comprises of his entire career, therefore you can see his progression and direction of interest. I thought his works of children was very interesting but rather eerie.


Louvre 4, Paris by Thomas Struth (Contrast adjusted)

Before we entered the Foujita exhibition area, we headed for the souveniour shop to see if we can take a look at what was being sold. It was like a madhouse there with all the aunties grabbing all the postcards that they can! I could barely squeeze in to see what the merchandises were.


Louvre 4, Paris in colour

After we had viewed the Foujita exhibition, we went to explore the permanent collection of the museum. We only had a limited time and thankfully, there was only one floor of the permanent exhibition. They included paintings of both Japanese and Western styles, prints as well as crafts and sculptures.


Image of Gate by Kawabata, Minoru

I am not a real modern art fan and I have to say that I do not understand modern art paintings, especially those abstract ones which baffles me. Seriously. I can't tell what I am suppose to be looking at. Hmmm.....lacking in imagination?



They had a Picasso in their permanent exhibition. They also had one Foujita painting that I remembered seeing.





The print collection, together with two interesting center pieces. The glass sculpture/piece of art in the glass casing in the second picture could be seen in the very first picture of this post



An unique piece called Circuit of Memory by Nakamura, Kohei



I like this painting called Cape of Zanpa by Kajiwara, Hisako



At the entrance of the permanent collection



The visitors taking a rest. This was a good photo op but I was a bit self conscious about taking pictures of them because no one else was brandishing a camera about and it was kind of obvious that I was trying to take pictures of them. So I just took one or two of this angle only to realise later that the other angles would have made for a much more interesting picture. It was pouring heavily outside. When we finished (I had cycled to the museum since it was near my place), we walked back and I pushed my bike all the way home. Needless to say, when I got home, I was soaking wet! Still, it was a good day and I could now say that I know another artist's work of art!