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Homage – Selections from the Hara Museum Collection

Dates : July 18 (Saturday) – October 12 (Monday, national holiday), 2015

Within the context of a dramatically changing world, the boundaries of art continue to expand in response to advances in media, diversifying values and other factors. As in ages past, artistic expression provides a mirror by which to see a reflection of the “now.” That image, however, embodies, more or less, the history and memory of the social milieu from whence it arose. All artists must face this aspect in the work of masters who went before them. By studying, referencing and reacting to past tradition, they seek to transcend it in order to attain their own expression.

Taking a hint from the concurrent show at the Kankai Pavilion, Line and Space: Cy Twombly and East Asia, this exhibition showcases works by contemporary art masters who, like Twombly, have left a solid mark in the history of art. Juxtaposed with these works, however, are works by artists of later generations. The intent of this comparison is to highlight the process of “appropriation” or “metamorphoses” by which new art borrows from the “classics,” an act of homage that has played a constant role through the ages.

Featured Works
Willem de Kooning, Untitled, 1967 / Robert Motherwell, Open #96, 1969 / Kenneth C. Noland, Summertime, 1964 / Robert Rauschenberg, Stopgap, 1964 / Buckminster Fuller, Duo-Tet Star Polyhedra, 1980 / Anselm Kiefer, Melancholia, 1988 / Roy Lichtenstein, Still Life with Scalloped Bowl, 1972 / Mickalene Thomas, Mama Bush : One of a Kind Two, 2009 / Yasumasa Morimura , Daughter of Art History, Maja C, 1990 / Yasumasa Morimura, Slaughter Cabinet II, 1995 / Hiroharu Mori, After a painting, 2004 / Yayoi Kusama, Mirror Room (Pumpkin), 1991 / Tabaimo, Midnight Sea, 2006/2008 and others