2024.01.16・
Having been open for more than 40 years, our museum is looking ahead to its future activities.
To this end, we are undertaking extensive renovations to our facility and landscaping of our gardens.
As such, we will be closed from November 1st, 2023 – April 2026 (tentative.)
Future progress updates will be announced on the museum’s website and via our social media channels.
We apologize for any inconvenience and disruption this may cause and kindly request your understanding.
Sezon Museum of Contemporary Art
President / Director of the Sezon Museum of Modern Art
Takao Tsutsumi
＜Contact Information during closure＞
TOKYO OFFICE
THE WORKS ANNEX 204,
3-17-9 Aobadai, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 153-0042
TEL: 81-3-5579-9725 FAX: 81-3-5579-9726
2023.02.22・
Shusaku Arakawa was born in Nagoya in 1936. After some time in Tokyo, in 1961 he chose to abandon his artistic activity there to move “just a little farther away” to New York where he based himself at Yoko Ono’s studio. In his interactions with numerous artists there, including Marcel Duchamp, Arakawa met the poet Madeline Gins (1941-2014) who would become his lifetime partner. The two delved deeply into the concept of “meaning,” noting that while people feel/think, it is generally in terms of meaning conveyed through words. This exploration evolved over 25 years into The Mechanism of Meaning, a project encompassing 127 items including 81 large-scale paintings, 44 drawings, one photograph, and one architectural model.
These works are, in effect, a major lifework series, brought together in one place for this exhibit. We invite you to go “just a little farther away” to a place that transcends the conventional viewing experience.
The Mechanism of Meaning: Neutralization of Subjectivity
c.1963-88 Oil, etc. on canvas 244×173cm
The Mechanism of Meaning (2nd Edition)© 2016 Estate of Madeline Gins. Reproduced with permission of the Estate of Madeline Gins.
The Mechanism of Meaning: Presentation of Ambiguous Zones
c.1963-88 Oil, etc. on canvas 244×173cm
The Mechanism of Meaning (2nd Edition)© 2016 Estate of Madeline Gins. Reproduced with permission of the Estate of Madeline Gins.
The Mechanism of Meaning: Splitting or Meaning
c.1963-88 Oil, etc. on canvas 244×173cm
The Mechanism of Meaning (2nd Edition)© 2016 Estate of Madeline Gins. Reproduced with permission of the Estate of Madeline Gins.
The Mechanism of Meaning: Reassembling
c.1968-88 Oil, etc. on canvas 244×173cm
The Mechanism of Meaning (2nd Edition)© 2016 Estate of Madeline Gins. Reproduced with permission of the Estate of Madeline Gins.
The Mechanism of Meaning: Meaning of Intelligence
c.1968-88 Oil, etc. on canvas 244×173cm
The Mechanism of Meaning (2nd Edition)© 2016 Estate of Madeline Gins. Reproduced with permission of the Estate of Madeline Gins.
2022.08.04・
Here are four artists using different media and techniques to investigate relationships between people and the environment. Maki Ohkojima echoes nature with the theme forest = body, painting images on various physical supports. Hideo Takashima explored the materiality of fantastical forms derived from daily-use earthenware pots with traditional ceramic paintwork. Yohei Fusegi multiplies fields of threads in needlework, seeming to form the territories and smells of human life. Masuko Hiroko traveled around Tohoku making line drawings on canvas to evoke natural forms growing in vessels.
The contours of nature and of human life are always amorphous. They repeatedly expand, discontinue, and fuse. In this era of changing value systems with a certain distance between us and our subject matter, how can we grasp outlines? That is to say, how can we grasp those points of contact between inside and out? These four artists rely on tactile sensations to push beyond the personal sensory realm, as they search for Continuous Contours of the territories to which they belong.
Maki Ohkojima, Ena, 2019-2022/ Territory, 2022
Hideo Takashima, Spread Cut-off Connect, 2022
Yohei Fusegi, OKU, 2011-2022
Masuko Hiroko, A person like river island, 2022
＞＞video archives
・Continuous Contours PV
・Scene 1 Yohei Fusegi
・Scene 2 Masuko Hiroko
・Scene 3 Hideo Takashima
・Scene 4 Maki Ohkojima
・Installation view
・4 Artist’s work description
Collection of Sezon Museum of Modern Art : Works on View
2022.07.28・
Last year, the Sezon Museum of Modern Art, which opened in August of 1981 with an exhibition featuring works by Marcel Duchamp, celebrated its 40th anniversary. The current exhibition titled “Art belongs to everyone” marking the museum’s 41st year introduces a variety of high-quality, richly unique works from the museum’s collection created by artists from Japan and around the world since the start of the 20th century.
Resting quietly against the backdrop of Mt. Asama, the museum itself was designed by the celebrated Japanese architect Kiyonori Kikutake (1928-2011). Every detail of the museum’s garden—from the beautifully rusted iron gate to the winding promenade featuring two bridges crossing over a creek, down to the choice of trees and plants—was designed by the representative post-war sculptor Isamu Wakabayashi (1936-2003). Visitors are treated to a truly unique, luxurious atmosphere as they enjoy sculptures scattered throughout the vast garden, accompanied by the gentle bubbling of the creek.
This fall, why not take a little time away from the stresses of everyday life to experience modern art at the Sezon Museum of Modern Art, nestled in the beautiful nature of Karuizawa?
Paul Klee, Arktische Tau, 1920
Wassily Kandinsky, Division-Unité, 1934
2021.06.11・
Sezon Museum of Modern Art is pleased to announce our upcoming exhibition “collection 40″. We will select 40 works from our collection such as Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Man Ray, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Syusaku Arakawa, Natsuyuki Nakanishi, and Keiji Usami.
>> “collection 40” Works on View
Special Exhibition
“Isamu Wakabayashi-The Garden of the Museum of Modern Art, Seibu Takanawa, Karuizawa (now the Garden of Sezon Museum of Modern Art)”
Isamu Wakabayashi (1936-2003) is a sculptor representing post war Japan, known for making steel its medium in his works. Participating in the Venice Biennale twice (1980 and 1986), and exhibitions overseas such as the Kunsthalle Mannheim in Germany (1997) has gained high evaluations. Wakabayashi’s creations were about how we humans are in a relationship with nature. Craving symbiosis of nature and human, while continuing to creating works, his garden productions tackled from the 1980s to his closing years are a form of expression suitable of turning his thoughts into an artwork. For this exhibition, Wakabayashi’s thoughts in practice will be traced and presented by exhibiting his drawings created to design our garden “Garden of Karuzawa Takanawa Museum” (1982 – 1985), fine-art photography, and models.
