Chikugo-ist Painter Obana Shigeharu_{2024.4.20(Sat)‐2024.7.7(Sun)>}

This is the first in a series of exhibitions introducing “Chikugo-ists,” artists with connections to Kurume and the Chikugo region, where Aoki Shigeru and Sakamoto Hanjiro were brought up. Obana Shigeharu (1926–2016) was born in the present Ukiha-shi, Fukuoka and continued working and painting in his hometown, Chikugo. He is known for his active involvement in the avant-garde art group Kyushu-ha and for his Chikugo River series, which he continued painting for more than fifteen years. This exhibition introduces a full view of Obana Shigeharu, who adhered to working exclusively in Chikugo, through paintings and related materials from early on in his career to his later years.

The Story of Indigo_{2024.7.20(Sat)‐2024.10.14(Mon)}

Indigo dyeing, a culture which the Japanese have been familiar with from old times, took hold in various parts of Japan and has been combined with diverse dyeing and weaving techniques. Look, for example, at katazome stencil dyeing of detailed patterns employing Nagaita-Chugata technique, and Kurume Kasuri, in which diverse patterns are woven with threads dyed in different shades. Based on tradition, the techniques continue to be further developed to this day. New developments by contemporary artists and works by designers fascinated with indigo are also introduced here. This exhibition explores the spread of indigo dyeing and weaving and its variegated charms.

Tamaki Matsueda , Hanashobu-Japanese irise , Public Interest Incorporated Foundation Kurume Kasuri Preservation Society

Maurice Denis and Japan—Rapports between Kuroda, Foujita, Umehara, and Denis_{2024.11.2(Sat)‐2025.1.13(Mon)}

The French artist Maurice Denis (1870–1943) was a member of the Nabis, an avant-garde group of painters from the generation following the Impressionists, and is also known as an art critic who foretold twentieth-century art. Belonging to the generation after the Impressionists, he was influenced by “Japonisme” in his youth, and taught at the Académie Ranson, where Japanese students studying painting in Paris were accepted. In Japan, Denis was introduced in the magazine Shirakaba etc. in the Taisho era, and his works were shown promptly in the 1920s. This exhibition traces the long and harmonious relationship between Denis and Japan mutually yearned from both the East and the West.

Maurice Denis, Young Mother, The National Museum of Western Art

Resonant Painting: Masterpieces in the Miyagi Museum of Art Collection—from Kandinsky and Takahashi Yuichi to Gutai_{2025.2.8(Sat)‐2025.5.11(Sun)}

The Miyagi Museum of Art, which opened in 1981, has a distinctive collection centered on modern and contemporary Japanese art, modern German art, original picture book illustrations, and the Sunouchi Collection assembled by the collector Sunouchi Toru, who is known for his essays entitled “Kimagure bijutsukan.” This exhibition of representative paintings from the Miyagi Museum of Art collection is organized while their museum is closed for renovation, and ranges from modern Western-style works by Takahashi Yuichi, Ebihara Kinosuke, etc. and foreign artists such as Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky to postwar art by members of the Gutai Art Association.

Shunsuke Matsumoto, A Painter, The Miyagi Museum of Art