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Past Special Exhibition 2013

Kyōto, Fascinatingly Elegant
Kyōto, the Exhibition of Modern Industrial Arts, and Shiseido

5 October (Sat) through 15 December (Sun), 2013

The Exhibition of Modern Industrial Arts was a series of Shiseido-sponsored group exhibitions that took between 1975 and 1995. The first group of nine participants included: potters Yagi Kazuo, Shimizu Uichi and Kamoda Shōji; lacquer crafters Akaji Yūsai, Taguchi Yoshikuni, and Masumura Mashiki; metalworker Somekawa Tetsunosuke; bamboo crafter Iizuka Shōkansai; and glass crafter Iwata Hisatoshi. These exhibitions of craftsmen were considered groundbreaking at the time, particularly for embracing craftsmen in their fifties without cleaving to particular group affiliations, field, or artistic style.

This exhibition presented about forty works by Exhibition participants with various connections to the city of Kyōto. These included: weaver Shimura Fukumi (living national treasure); iron-glaze potter Shimizu Uichi (living national treasure); abstract ceramics pioneers Yagi Kazuo and Suzuki Osamu; potter Kamoda Shōji (known for his pursuit of universal beauty in molded forms); and overglaze ceramics potter Fujimoto Yoshimichi (living national treasure).

Searching in Summer In Paintings, In Sculptures
Shiseido Art House Collection Exhibition — Works from the 90s and Later

2 July (Tue) through 23 September (Mon), 2013

The Shiseido Gallery began hosting its Tsubakikai Exhibitions in 1947. Named after Shiseido's camellia blossom (tsubaki) company logo, the Tsubakikai is an ongoing exhibition group comprised of representative artists in each era, invited to participate without particular regard for age or artistic affiliations. The membership has always changed with each iteration, and this year Shiseido has already welcomed a new set of artists to participate in the group's seventh iteration. For this exhibition, the Shiseido Art House presented Tsubakikai works from the 1990s on, focusing mainly on those from artists involved in the 4th, 5th, and 6th Tsubakikai groups.

Flowering Spring Exhibition
A Collection of Japanese & Western Paintings, Crafts, and Poetry from the Shiseido Art House

3 March (Sat) through 23 June (Sun), 2013

This exhibition presented a mixture of Japanese and Western style paintings, crafts, and antiques from the Shiseido Art House collection—not only pictorial works but also numerous craft pieces—all selected for their associations with spring and exhibited with similarly seasonal poetry to create a bright, spirit-lifting space.

Prints, Pastels & Watercolors from the Shiseido Art House Collection

16 January (Wed) through 24 March (Sun), 2013

This exhibition presented pictorial works on paper, created using a variety of techniques and materials, from watercolors and pastels to copperplate and woodblock printing. Approximately forty works by eighteen artists were presented, including representative early Showa-period figurative painters like Ryōhei Koiso, Takeshi Hayashi and Shōkō Uemura, Japanese-style painters like Settai Komura and Matazō Kayama, contemporary artists like Katsura Funakoshi and Toeko Tatsuno, and non-Japanese artists like Marie Laurencin and Pablo Picasso. While these various prints and drawings (done in line, charcoal, pen, watercolor, and other mediums) seem simple in technique compared to traditional oil and Japanese-style paintings, this exhibition highlighted how they each, in fact, offer their own uniquely appealing worlds of expression.