Exhibition Outlines

No.14 Modern Art of Europe -Revaluation of Forgotten Works- (1997/1/7 - 1997/3/9)

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Modern Art of Europe

The Museum of the lmperia1 Collections (Sannomaru Shozokan) is holding its 14th exhibition, “Modern Art of Europe - Revaluation of Forgotten Works”.

During the beginning of the Meiji to early Showa Periods, many western paintings, sculptures and crafts were brought to the Imperia1 Family and the Imperial Household Agency, as gifts received through Imperial Household diplomacy and auspicious events, and ordered or purchased by the Japanese government or the Imperial Household, along with ancient pieces of Asian and Japanese art, and the various modem Japanese arts. Most of these are modern pieces which were created in the 19th century and later, and a part is presently among our collection.

This exhibition attempts to introduce the pieces among the modern western art in our collection which the artist and date of production are clear and can be considered valuable from an art historical viewpoint, as a result of research.

It is not a systematic collection where the history of European modern art can be viewed, and most of the artists are forgotten from even the history of their own countries, except for a few such as Rodin. However, there are pieces made by artists such as the 19th century Italian painter, Gio Batta Ferrari, and the Russian painter active around 1910, Boris Kustodiev, or the Late Impressionist paintings of Belgium which have been rapidly revalued recently within the art history of each country, and typical pieces showing certain trends of expressions of certain eras. We consider it meaningful to show that our collection includes such interesting pieces, and to exhibit them. We hope you may rediscover the charm of these forgotten pieces of art which were brought to Japan within the history of interchange with Europe.