KYNE, Untitled, 2020

KYNE, that is pronounced as ki-ne, draws attention these years with his style of art. His thought and the museum’s policy coincided to challenge new things even in the coronavirus pandemic. A large mural painting, 3.14 x 13.00 meters, is on view open to pubic at the corridor just before the exit of the Collection Galleries on the second floor.

About the Piece
A woman who is lying and looking out the window is depicted on the whole white wall. KYNE had a theme of “publicness and freedom” to work on this mural painting. The art museum and the Ohori Park are both public facilities. What is publicness? What is being free? This woman might be thinking such things.

Artist’s Profile
KYNE is a Fukuoka-born artist, who lives and works in Fukuoka. He majored in Japanese-style painting at university, and started his activity as an artist from around 2006. He established the current style of painting portraying woman with a cool look around 2010, and now gets attention in and out of the country with his unique art inspired by 80’s popular culture.

Collection Highlights

■Modern and Contemporary Art A
Collection Highlights I
From “The Fine Artworks Both Foreign and Domestic Which Show the Currents of Modern Art”
Within our museum’s acquisition policy is the line “to systematically collect fine artworks both foreign and domestic which show the currents of modern art.” In this corner, eight artworks representative of the ones acquired by following this policy will be exhibited.

■Modern and Contemporary Art C
Collection Highlights II
Rethinking the Gender Balance in the Acquisitions and Presentations
The theme of Woman Shooting Cherry Blossoms by Yinka SHONIBARE CBE, which was first presented at the exhibition in celebration of the reopening and added to the collection, is empowerment of women. In the background of the piece, there is a rooted fact even now of the inequality between men and women such as employment opportunities, not only in Japan but in the world. We cannot say that the acquisitions and presentations of the museum have no relation to it.
Focusing on artworks by women artists, this exhibition comprises their works as its axis. 

Image: Yinka Shonibare CBE, Woman Shooting Cherry Blossoms, 2019
Copyright Yinka Shonibare CBE, 2019. Courtesy of James Cohan Gallery, New York
Photographer: Stephen White & Co.

Art in Modern Japan: From Meiji to the Beginning of Showa- Part 2

We are going to display mainly oil paintings and Japanese-style paintings to tell how art was developed in Japan after it entered into the modern society.

Self-Portrait-Like Works

Artists have depicted self-portraits based on various motivations since the Meiji era to date. We explore, through the collection, the inseparable relationship of “expressing oneself” and modern and contemporary art.

Image: UEDA Kaoru, Self-portrait on Spoon A, 1990