Hiroshi Sugimoto: Post Vitam

Loved by citizens as one of Japan’s oldest public art museums housed in its original building, Kyoto City Museum of Art will reopen as Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art on March 21, 2020.

Over the past three years, Kyoto City has been working carefully to renovate the Kyoto City Museum of Art, a wish long held by its citizens. In order to minimize the burden on citizens for construction costs, a naming rights contract was signed with Kyocera Corporation, a major company headquartered in Kyoto, and the museum was affectionately renamed Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art. In addition, an open call for master design proposals was launched and a collaborative plan by architects Jun Aoki and Tezzo Nishizawa was selected. While making every effort to maintain the visage of the building, which has long been loved by citizens of Kyoto, a new building for contemporary art exhibitions has been newly established, and the museum’s function as an exhibition venue has been greatly updated to create a significant public space even more open to citizens. Active not only as an international architect but also as an artist, Aoki was appointed director of the art museum after his deep involvement in the museum renewal project.

The new building’s inaugural exhibition will be Hiroshi Sugimoto - Post Vitam. Having frequently visited Kyoto over the years and found a source of contemplative thought in its long history, Sugimoto gained inspiration from the historical background of Okazaki district where the museum is situated and former site of six large temples, to conceive the sacred splendor of an imaginary temple under the title Post Vitam. In addition, Sugimoto will undertake a large-scale exhibition of photographic works including "Sea of Buddha" series, which will encompass new large-format photos of the central Buddhist statue in the main hall of Rengeōin Temple (better known as Sanjūsangen-dō Temple) in Kyoto, as well as the world debut of the large-format color print series "Opticks". Furthermore, the exhibition will feature Glass Tea House “Mondrian,” which will be installed in an outdoor Japanese garden, as well as various works and archaeological relics related to the key words Kyoto, jōdo (pure land) and ruri (lapis lazuli) glass. Together with a reexamination of the current state of Sugimoto’s unique practice, which has developed out of photography through the intersection of religious, scientific and artistic inquiry, the exhibition will take a fresh look at the state of the Japanese soul in its search for the jōdo over the centuries. 

In addition, the main building will serve as the venue for 250 Years of Kyoto Art Masterpieces, an exhibition introducing Kyoto Art gathered from across Japan on an unprecedented scale. Presented in three segments over nine months, it will feature over 400 masterpieces including nihonga (Japanese-style painting), craft and Japanese calligraphy from the modern period to the present.

In the future, the museum has long-term plans to build a comprehensive collection of art made in Kyoto from the modern period onwards. With future exhibitions Andy Warhol Kyoto and The Doraemon Exhibition KYOTO 2020 scheduled this year, and under the direction of a world-renowned new director, the museum aims to interweave diverse genres from fine art and manga to fashion and architecture, widely disseminating a new vision of culture in Kyoto where tradition and innovation converge and evolve.

The Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art Inaugural Exhibitions
Hiroshi Sugimoto – Post Vitam
March 21–June 14, 2020

250 Years of Kyoto Art Masterpieces
Origins of the Collection: March 21–April 5, 2020
Part 1: From Edo to Meiji—Embracing Modernity: April 18–June 14, 2020 
Part 2: From Meiji to Showa—The Golden Age of Kyoto Painting: July 11–September 6, 2020
Part 3: From Post-war to Today—to the Future: October 3–December 6, 2020

For media enquiries, please contact pr@kyoto-museum.jp