Hidehiko Sasaki, a curator at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
The inscription that publicly honors Keitaro Sato is exhibited along with his career at the Keitaro Sato Memorial Art Lounge.
We talked with Hidehiko Sasaki, a curator at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. This interview was conducted in October 2012.
Q: Where did the old museum that opened as the Tokyo Prefectural Museum stand?
Sasaki : The old museum stood on the area where Sogakudo of the Former Tokyo Music School is now located, including the green space in front of Sogakudo. When the new museum opned in 1975, the old museum still remained, and both the museums stood side by side, so plays by the theater company "Tenjo Sajiki" led by Shuji Terayama were performed in the old museum.
Q: What is a role of the Tokyo Prefectural Museum and the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum?
The Tokyo Prefectural Museum and the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum were established in order to exhibit, introduce and store artworks of modern and contemporary art. While activities to promote art education, including workshops, have recently actively been carried out, the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum also took the initiative in conducting such activities.
An open library was set up for the first time in Japan in 1975, the year when the museum was remodeled into the present building. Now, the library has been renewed, and opened to the public as "Library and Archives."
Q: Where did the old museum that opened as the Tokyo Prefectural Museum stand?
The old museum stood on the area where Sogakudo of the Former Tokyo Music School is now located, including the green space in front of Sogakudo. When the new museum opned in 1975, the old museum still remained, and both the museums stood side by side, so plays by the theater company "Tenjo Sajiki" led by Shuji Terayama were performed in the old museum.
Q: What is a role of the Tokyo Prefectural Museum and the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum?
The Tokyo Prefectural Museum and the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum were established in order to exhibit, introduce and store artworks of modern and contemporary art. While activities to promote art education, including workshops, have recently actively been carried out, the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum also took the initiative in conducting such activities.
An open library was set up for the first time in Japan in 1975, the year when the museum was remodeled into the present building. Now, the library has been renewed, and opened to the public as "Library and Archives."
Q: What kind of "Kobo-ten" and art exhibitions have currently been held?
Although the "Inten" exhibition is held in this museum, the "Nitten" exhibition, "Kokuten" exhibition and Nika Art Exhibition are so large-scale that those exhibitions are held in the National Art Center, Tokyo, at Roppongi, Minato City, Tokyo. Also, themed exhibitions jointly sponsored by newspaper publishers and outside institutions, which introduce masterpieces at home and abroad are held in this museum since around 1985. Recently, we exhibited paintings by Jan Vermeer at the exhibition "Masterpieces from the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis," and a painting by Vincent van Gogh at the exhibition "Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art." This museum has held a variety of exhibitions in its long history of more than 80 years. (continued in the right column)
Q: What is the meaning that the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum is located in Ueno Park?
Many museums, including the Tokyo National Museum and the National Museum of Nature and Science, are concentrated in Ueno Park. The Tokyo University of the Arts is located next to this museum, so this museum can function as "a gateway to art" by cooperating with specialists in those insititutions and the university and making use of their knowledge and skills.
Q: What kind of people often visit the museum?
Most of visitors are middle-aged and senior women. When special exhibitions that introduce masterpieces at home and abroad are held, many visitors, including children and young and elderly people, visit this museum. More than 270 "Kobo-ten" exhibitions of artists groups are held in a year. In addition to those group exhibitions, exhibitions of excellent art works created by university students and elementary and junior high school students, as well as Graduation Works Exhibitions of the Tokyo University of the Arts, are held in this museum. People whose artworks were exhibited here when they were students revisit this museum, recalling the past exhibitions, so a wide range of communities is formed.(continued in the next page)
Hidehiko Sasaki, a curator at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
"Statue of Keitaro Sato" by Fumio Asakura