Our collection has mainly been formed through exhibitions held at the 8th floor event space of Seibu Department Store Ikebukuro, The Seibu Museum of Art, and Sezon Museum of Art.

The first encounter between Seibu Department Store and contemporary art was the “Paul Klee” exhibition in 1961 (held at the 8th floor event space of Seibu Department Store Ikebukuro). This exhibition, featuring over 100 works from the collection of the Bern Museum of Fine Arts, was the first Klee exhibition in Japan. It provided an opportunity to introduce and popularize Klee, who was not yet widely known in Japan. The Arktische Tau（1920), held in our collection, depicts an imaginary Arctic landscape by Klee, who traveled extensively throughout his life. It portrays the beautiful undulations resembling the aurora, rhythmical mountain-shaped icebergs, and two suns represented by two circles (the reflection of the sun in the sky on the surface of melted ice) in delicate melting colors. In addition to Arktische Tau, our collection also includes three other works: Sirenen-Eier (1939), Geist im Baum(1923), and Büste (1922).

Our collection consists of approximately 800 works and spans from Man Ray’s Le Couple in 1914 to contemporary pieces. Le Couple is a valuable Cubist painting created by Man Ray, inspired by the works of Picasso and Braque, which were exhibited at the Armory Show in America. After this year, Man Ray stopped painting oil paintings with natural motifs. The following year, he met Marcel Duchamp, who had traveled from Paris to New York, and began his involvement with Dada activities in New York.

In 1990, our museum held a large-scale solo exhibition dedicated to Man Ray. Among the diverse range of Man Ray’s works that span across various artistic disciplines, we also hold approximately 60 pieces including sculptures, photographs, and prints.

In the year following the opening of the Seibu Museum of Art in Ikebukuro in 1975, the “Kandinsky” exhibition was held. One of the exhibited works was Wassily Kandinsky’s Division-Unité (1934), which was already part of the collection of the Seibu Museum of Art at that time. Another work held in our collection is Hart in Weich (1927), which showcases Kandinsky’s established style of geometric compositions. The movement and contrasting shades of color are depicted through repetitive, rhythmic, and transformative elements, resembling musical expressions where various sounds resonate together in a layered manner.

By observing the differences in Kandinsky’s lines and forms compared to those of Paul Klee, who also taught at the Bauhaus, a comprehensive school of art and architecture, one can appreciate the diverse approaches within the realm of art and explore the connection between different artistic movements.

In 1981, the former Takanawa Museum, which served as the predecessor to our museum, relocated to Karuizawa and reopened as an art exhibition featuring Marcel Duchamp. The Takanawa Museum was initially focused on collecting Japanese traditional art under the ownership of Yasujiro Tsutsumi. However, under the vision of Seiji Tsutsumi, it aimed to become a hub for contemporary experimental creations and a reflection of the spirit of the times, leading to its relocation to Karuizawa. In 1983, following the first-ever Duchamp exhibition in Japan, Boîte-en-Valise (1968) became part of our collection. This artwork is a collection of replicas of Duchamp’s works, containing 68 portable items. Duchamp shattered the myth that the unique original is the sole artistic value by embracing mass production and readymades. This movement would go on to have a profound impact on the subsequent history of contemporary art.

These artworks are deeply intertwined with the history of our museum and serve as pillars of our collection, representing significant historical pieces from the formative period of contemporary art.

In 1978, the exhibition “Masters of American Contemporary Art: The Formation Period of Abstract Expressionism, ’35-’49” (Seibu Museum of Art) delved into the origins of Abstract Expressionism, featuring works by Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and others. In 1996, the exhibition “Abstract Expressionism: The Golden Age of American Contemporary Painting” showcased Jackson Pollock’s No.9 (1950) and Mark Rothko’s No.7 (1960) from our museum’s collection, establishing a trajectory of American Abstract Expressionism within our collection.

Jasper Johns’ works were first exhibited at the Seibu Museum of Art in the “30 Years of American Art” exhibition in 1976. Subsequently, in 1978, the “Jasper Johns Retrospective Exhibition” (Seibu Museum of Art) became a world touring exhibition in collaboration with the Whitney Museum of American Art. In this exhibition, Target (1974) was presented as part of the Seibu Museum of Art’s collection. The artwork directs its focus towards familiar everyday objects such as the American flag and target, which are instantly recognizable but often overlooked and not actively observed, as they do not require personal creation.

While Paul Klee stated, “to make visible the invisible,” Jasper Johns approached the act of seeing and visibility itself in a more objective manner within the context of the contemporary society. He continued to question what it means to see and be seen, taking a position of objectifying the act of looking, as he looked towards the 21st century. The Seibu Museum of Art houses approximately ten pieces of Jasper Johns’ artwork in its collection.

At our museum, we have a collection that encompasses the flow of post-war American contemporary art as one of its central axes. Alongside the energetic development of American contemporary art, which was further fueled by the influx of numerous artists immigrating from Europe during and after the war, we have been collecting internationally significant works imbued with a pioneering spirit by artists such as Yves Klein, Lucio Fontana, and Anselm Kiefer. These collections have been acquired in conjunction with the organization of exhibitions, reflecting our commitment to showcasing and preserving these remarkable artistic contributions.

“The View of Japanese Contemporary Art” was the opening memorial exhibition held at the 12th floor at Seibu Department Store in 1975. The new museum, starting off with 27 Japanese artists, with their activities being followed by the museum, Shusaku Arakawa, Yokoo Tadanori, Keiji Usami, HIsao Domoto, Kumi Sugai, Mitsuo Kano, and Isamu Wakabayashi who designed the basic plan of the garden were among the attendants. Major collections for the Japanese artists are aquired chronologically by tracing each era of the respective artists.