Captain Japan wrote:If you climb atop the bridge that crosses the Nogizaka tunnel you can get a good look at it. Very interesting looking place...

Charles wrote:Well that's typical. I've written about this before. A museum without a permanent collection is just an empty building.

Mulboyne wrote:Looks like one of the first events to be held during the "soft open" of the new centre will be the prelaunch party for the new Audi TT (Japanese). That sounds like a cultural highlight.

Mulboyne wrote:Kisho Kurokawa is the architect. He's from Aichi so was a fairly natural choice to design Toyota Stadium which was used for the 2002 World Cup. He hasn't done much overseas but did design Kuala Lumpur. International Airport.

Charles wrote:A museum without a permanent collection is just an empty building.

After three decades and 35 billion yen, Japan's newest and biggest art museum opens in Tokyo on Jan. 21. Does the capital really need another art venue? The National Art Center, first proposed in the mid-1970s, is the third national government-run art museum in Tokyo and will compete with nine city government-run art museums and galleries along with hundreds of private venues in the metropolitan region. The popular Mori Art Museum and the newly relocated Suntory Museum of Art, opening March 30, are within 10 minutes walk. How to fill the cavernous 48,000 square meters (517,000 square feet) of floor space with exhibits the public will pay to see? If the museum looks like a lavish white elephant -- another state building project planned in the dark days of the recession to help revive the economy -- don't be fooled. A savvy exhibition strategy, an innovative facility and enjoyable attractions may delight rather than drain the nation's taxpayers, creating a new Mecca for Tokyo's avid museum-goers...

...[T]he building will have no permanent collection, making it unique among Japan's national art museums. Considering the recent trend in astronomical contemporary-art prices this may be a wise choice. For Japanese artists however, it is a disappointment. Government-sponsored funding for artists, it appears, will remain conservative at best. That leaves plenty of space in which to exhibit. But only two out of the 12 exhibition rooms will be used for the kind of curated blockbuster shows that typically pull in the crowds. Most of the space will be rented by nationally recognized art associations to showcase their members' works. That is a boon for the more than 240 of these associations located in Tokyo alone. Finding adequate exhibition space has been a problem for many. The rental exhibition rooms are booked up for the next five years. From April through March 2008 alone, 69 art associations will be exhibiting, including the coveted Nitten Exhibition, which the National Art Center has wrested from its traditional home at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. With more than 12,000 works, the show is the largest in Japan...more...

Wow. It's huge. Proposed during the halcyon optimism of the bubble era and constructed during a period of economic slowdown almost a generation later, the National Art Center, Tokyo has finally opened and is positioned to be the jewel in the crown of the Japanese government's quintet of national museums. That's the good news. Now, at the risk of sounding like a party pooper, it's necessary to address a couple of things. First, there is a certain irony that the NAC has opened with an exhibition celebrating "things," when in fact it doesn't actually have any. Yes, this is an art museum without a collection. Although the NAC's official name, Kokuritsu Shin-Bijutsukan, properly translates as New National Museum, there are inconsistencies in its English-language materials. The Web site uses the term "art exhibition facility" while the catalog contains this doublespeak gem: "As long as a museum possesses actual space in the real world, then it will remain a place where people can discover 'things' and it is through this coming together of people and things that new culture and art is born." I think a more accurate explanation would read something like this: "As inclined as the Japanese government is to spend money on public works projects such as this big beautiful building, they are just as disinclined to spend money on works of art."....more...

A Tokyo exhibition has once again topped a global league table for daily attendance figures at art shows in 2006.

A survey in this month's edition of the Art Newspaper shows that "The Price Collection: Jakuchu and The Age of Imagination" received 6,446 visitors each day it was open at the Tokyo National Museum.

This collection belonged to the Californian collectors Joe and Etsuko Price and contained works from the late 18th century Edo painters including Jakuchu Ito.

This was the highest daily total for art shows worldwide in 2006 and puts Tokyo at the top of the table for the third year running.

Second in the table was an exhibition of the work of Leonard Foujita, an artist who left Japan for early 20th century Paris and absorbed Western modernism into his work. The show at the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo attracted a daily audience of 6,324. Tokyo had three other exhibitions in the top 10....more...

Captain Japan wrote:I'm guessing that free tickets has a lot to do with this...
Tokyo art shows continue to lead world in popularity: survey
Kyodo

Captain Japan wrote:I'm guessing that free tickets has a lot to do with this...
Tokyo art shows continue to lead world in popularity: survey
Kyodo

Brasserie Paul Bocuse Le Musee at Tokyo's new National Art Center never misses a chance to flaunt its affiliation with the famous French chef. His name is blazed across the entrance, on the menus, on the napkins and -- just in case you've forgotten -- on the folder containing the bill. You'd never guess it from the food. From soup to sorbet, the fare rarely rose above the average for a French restaurant in Tokyo. That's a disappointment because Bocuse's brasseries in Lyon serve excellent meals. The stunning setting in Tokyo's Roppongi district deserves better...more...

Charles wrote:Well that's typical. I've written about this before. A museum without a permanent collection is just an empty building.

prolly wrote:that's not true - there are a lot of good contemporary-art museums that refuse to have collections.

Charles wrote:Name one.

I think you are confusing galleries with museums. A gallery is a commercial venue that has no permanent collection, it only exhibits works for sale or temporary exhibits (like a juried show). A museum is an institution focused on their permanent collection, usually only a small percent of their collection is on view at any moment. Museums almost never de-aquisition their works, galleries have 100% turnover.

prolly wrote:the new museum in new york city - doesn't have a collection and has never had one for its entire existence since it opened in 1977. there are plenty more worldwide, but you asked for me to name one.

Charles wrote:I don't care if they call themselves a museum, I checked them out and they're a gallery. Sure they're a noncommercial gallery, but a gallery nonetheless.

As I see it, a museum has a collection and their primary duty is to conserve that collection and protect it for presentation to future viewers throughout the life of the museum. Terminology may be used somewhat loosely, for example compare your gallery "The New Museum" to the museum "The Neue Gallery" which has a permanent collection of hundreds of millions of dollars of works.

prolly wrote:hence the ",but whatever." on my reply. you're apparently the expert here, not me.

Charles wrote:You're not the only person here who has professional experience working at art institutions.

The Cultural Affairs Agency plans to set up a panel of experts to discuss a compensation scheme covering damage sustained by artwork loaned by foreign countries for exhibition in Japan, according to sources. The agency expects the panel to reach a conclusion by the summer for introduction in fiscal 2010. Currently, art museums, private companies or other entities that hold exhibitions pay out of their own pocket to insure artwork against theft or damage. Payments are based on the estimated value of the items. The premium insurance rate, which averaged 0.1 percent to 0.2 percent before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, has risen to nearly 0.3 percent in recent years. Museums say the cost to insure major exhibitions sometimes exceeds 100 million yen. Corporate sponsorship to cover such costs has been declining, leading some museums to say they might not be able to hold exhibitions of foreign art.

Education, Science and Technology Minister Ryu Shionoya said at the House of Councillors Budget Committee on Jan. 21 that the government would consider the introduction of a national compensation system for any damage to artwork on loan from foreign countries. "It'll help enhance the credibility of exhibitions in Japan in the eyes of the international community," he said. The United States and many European countries have such systems, but they differ in the details. Some countries compensate all damage beyond a certain value, while others set upper limits on compensation. The envisaged panel is expected to discuss the framework that would best suit the situation in Japan, where many exhibitions are held by private companies by looking at those used the United States and Europe. "As serious cases [of theft or damage] are rare, the U.S. government doesn't always cover the insurance for exhibitions, but does pay compensation for any actual damages that occur," an agency official said. The U.S. system eases insurance burdens on exhibition organizers by covering part of the cost of compensation. The agency plans to look mainly at the U.S. system at the panel. The agency also plans to set guidelines for organizers and artworks to gain eligibility for the compensation system.

• The names of rooms
• The items on the menu for the crappy cafe in the corner of the basement (but not the other restaurants and cafes)
• One word from the title of one of the 3 exhibitions ("Louvre")
• The titles of the works in the Louvre exhibition, and sometimes the artist's name, were written in French, but the explanations of each work were only in Japanese. There were a few signs explaining major sections of the exhibition, also in French. The pair of English speakers I spotted were thrilled that they were able to read "exposition remarquable" ("hey, I think that says this is a remarkable exposition!").