【Tokyo, Japan】12 Best Exhibitions to See This Weekend: From Van Cleef & Arpels and Kobayashi Tokusaburo to ‘Laïcité’ (Bijutsu Techo)

The exhibition “Eternal Moment: Van Cleef & Arpels – High Jewelry Narrates Art Deco” at the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum runs until January 18. Click here for the venue report. Click here for an explanatory article by Yuko Hiraboshi (Professor, Kobe University Graduate School).

Van Cleef & Arpels is a high jewelry maison founded in 1906 at Place Vendôme in Paris. It is highly regarded worldwide for its poetic collections inspired by nature, couture, dance, and fantasy worlds. It has created numerous pieces of jewelry rich in technique and creativity, including the innovative “Mystery Set” technique, the Zip necklace, and the Alhambra motif.

This exhibition is held to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1925 “Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes” (Art Deco Exhibition). The venue displays approximately 250 pieces of jewelry, watches, and objets d’art selected from the maison’s historical “Patrimony Collection” and private collections, along with about 60 archival materials. The main building of the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, known as the former Asaka Palace residence, showcases works from the Art Deco period of the 1910s-30s, while the new wing introduces the “Savoir-Faire” (artisan skills) carried on to the present day.

The “Kobayashi Tokusaburo” exhibition is being held at the Tokyo Station Gallery until January 18. Click here for the venue report.

Kobayashi Tokusaburo (1884–1949) graduated from the Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1909, participated in the avant-garde painting movement known as the Fyūzan-kai (Fusain Society), and was involved in publishing as an associate of the magazine “Kiseki” (Miracle). He also handled stage design for the theater troupe “Geijutsu-za” (Art Theater). As a Western-style painter, he exhibited at the Inten (Japan Art Institute Exhibition) and the Enchō-kai Exhibition, and from 1923, he focused his activities on the Shun’yō-kai Exhibition. From his mid-40s onward, he created many works featuring children as models and also tackled still lifes with bright tones. In his later years, he painted natural landscapes such as Enoura (Numazu City) and continued creating until just before his death.

This exhibition is the first major retrospective of Kobayashi Tokusaburo, introducing his artistic career through approximately 300 works and materials. In his early period, he sketched diverse subjects including his future wife Masako as a model, harbor and waterfront scenes, and spectacles. Alongside friends he met during his time at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts and the Fyūzan-kai, he challenged himself with oil painting, watercolor, woodblock prints, and etchings, deepening his painting style. This exhibition also displays works by his close associates, including Hisakichi Sanada, Tetsugorō Yorozu, Shōhachi Kimura, and Inosuke Hako.

The “Keizo Kitajima Photography Exhibition: Borrowed Place, Borrowed Time” is being held at the Nagano Prefectural Art Museum until January 18. Click here for the venue report.

Keizo Kitajima began photography seriously after participating in Daido Moriyama’s class at the “WORKSHOP Photography School” in 1975. The following year, following the school’s dissolution, he co-founded the self-managed gallery “Image Shop CAMP” with Moriyama and others. He has received numerous awards. From the 1980s onward, he photographed in East and West Berlin, Warsaw, Prague, Budapest, Hong Kong, Seoul, and other locations, documenting cities and people under the Cold War structure.

In 1991, after covering the former Soviet Union, he shifted away from his previous snapshot-centered work and subsequently developed series based on fixed-point, continuous shooting, such as “PORTRAITS” and “UNTITLED RECORDS.” These works are presented in an exhibition that re-examines layers of time and memory through post-earthquake disaster areas and landscapes across Japan.

The exhibition “Netherlands × Chiba: Capturing, Narrating – Sarah van Lee & David van der Leeuw × Yuki Shimizu” is being held at the Chiba Prefectural Museum of Art until January 18. Click here for the venue report.

This exhibition is the first in Japan to introduce the works of young Dutch photographers Sarah van Lee and David van der Leeuw. The venue displays approximately 80 works, focusing on their “Metropolitan Melancholia” and “Still Life” series created in New York.

It also highlights the history of photography related to Chiba, introducing old photographs associated with Chiba and the museum’s painting collection through the approach of Yuki Shimizu, a photographer and novelist based in Chiba.

Report on “French Art Viewed from Laïcité” (Utsunomiya Museum of Art). The world’s first attempt to re-examine French art history.
Opening report for “Kobayashi Tokusaburo” (Tokyo Station Gallery). Unraveling the unknown artistic career and taking a step towards rediscovery.
Opening report for “Netherlands × Chiba: Capturing, Narrating – Sarah van Lee & David van der Leeuw × Yuki Shimizu” (Chiba Prefectural Museum of Art). Unraveling the unknown relationship between Chiba and the Netherlands through photography.
Opening report for the 50th Anniversary Commemorative Exhibition “Shinjuku, City of Modern Art” (SOMPO Museum of Art). Tracing the half-century trajectory of artists associated with Shinjuku.
Opening report for “Keizo Kitajima Photography Exhibition: Borrowed Place, Borrowed Time” (Nagano Prefectural Art Museum). What does it mean to reflect others?