The Seibu Museum of Art opened on the 12th floor of Seibu Department Store in Ikebukuro, and its inaugural exhibition, A View of Japanese Contemporary Art, marked the beginning of the museum’s activities alongside twenty-seven Japanese artists.
The participating artists were Ay-O, Shusaku Arakawa, Yoshikuni Iida, Masuo Ikeda, Takamichi Ito, Keiji Usami, Mitsuo Kano, Kyubei Kiyomizu, Tadaaki Kuwayama, Morio Shinoda, Ushio Shinohara, Susumu Shingu, Kumi Sugai, Nobuo Sekine, Jiro Takamatsu, Minami Tada, Shintaro Tanaka, Yasukazu Tabuchi, Hisao Domoto, Natsuyuki Nakanishi, Tetsuya Noda, Tomio Miki, Kozo Mio, Haruhiko Yasuda, Katsuhiro Yamaguchi, Tadanori Yokoo, and Isamu Wakabayashi.
In later years, the Sezon Museum of Modern Art continued to follow the activities of artists such as Arakawa, Nakanishi, Yokoo, Usami, Domoto, Sugai, and Kano, systematically building its collection around their works. Wakabayashi would eventually develop the master plan for the museum garden.
Seiji Tsutsumi, then President of Seibu Department Store and founder of the museum, believed that the Seibu Museum of Art should function as a “base of the spirit of the age.” Reflecting on the role of the museum, he wrote:“I would like the museum itself to be a place that constantly changes and transforms—like sand covering a dune or clouds drifting over a polar wilderness—retaining the traces of strong winds, streaming onward, erasing old footprints, and receiving new ones left by those who follow.”
In the same year, Ikko Tanaka was appointed creative director of the Saison Group (then the Seibu Retail Group). Working closely with Tsutsumi, he established a clear corporate identity and brand strategy for the newly opened museum. Tanaka oversaw its comprehensive art direction, including posters, brochures, tickets, entrance displays, and spatial design, while also playing a significant role in shaping the image of the group as a whole.At a time when awareness of corporate identity and design was becoming increasingly important, the Seibu Museum of Art emerged as a pioneering institution, distinguished by its consistently applied design program based on a clearly articulated concept.
The year also saw the opening of the Seibu Book Center, the predecessor of the bookstore LIBRO, as well as Art Vivant, a bookstore and record shop specializing in art publications. The previous year had witnessed the establishment of the Seibu Theatre, the launch of the Abe Studio by Kobo Abe, and the appointment of Toru Takemitsu as music director of Music Today.