COLLECTION 2025-4

Adults -700yen(560yen)

College students -400yen(320yen)

Children(High school students and under 18 years old) – Free of charge

Admission is free for disability passbook holders and up to one accompanying adult.

Moved by Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, which he discovered in the literary and fine arts magazine Shirakaba, the 18-year-old Munakata was inspired to take up oil painting. His early work clearly reflected this admiration, with delicate renderings and a style reminiscent of the Western artists he was influenced by, particularly Van Gogh and Cézanne. However, as he continued to paint, a question began to take root: Could painting in the Western tradition of oils make one merely an apprentice of the West? In his autobiography, Bangokudo, published in 1964 by Chuokoron-sha, Munakata came to the realization that, “as a Japanese person, art born from and cultivated completely in Japan felt the most authentic.” This was what led to his shift in focus from oil painting to woodblock printing. It was also around this time that Munakata visited Izu Oshima, where he encountered the breathtaking natural beauty of flora from the southern provinces, distinct from the ones in Aomori—an experience that solidified the direction of his art. “The medium that truly captures the colors of reality are neither Japanese-style paintings nor woodblock prints, but rather oil paintings,” he remarked in the same autobiography. “Subjects where primary colors are meant to remain undiluted, I will paint in oils. But with woodblock prints, I will emphasize subjects best expressed in black and white.” This moment marks the point in Munakata’s portfolio where his pieces became sensory and visceral, overflowing with vibrant colors that evoke oils, sometimes inviting comparisons to Fauvism.

Munakata believed that studying under a mentor would prevent him from ever surpassing them, a conviction that ushered him to carve his own path in woodblock printing without formal guidance. While he shattered the traditional customs of printmaking through the size, presentation, technique and expression of his works, how did the oil paintings he derived so much pleasure from throughout his life evolve? This exhibition traces this progression in chronological order. Alongside woodblock prints bursting with vitality, you will find works that Munakata himself considered deserving of recognition. We invite you to explore and appreciate not only the interaction between them but also the individual strengths of each piece.

The featured exhibit, Extraordinary World, shows the interrelated techniques between the works of Salvador DALI and the artists of Aomori. One of the leading artists of the 20th century, Dali was a part of the Surrealist movement during the 1930s. At that time, members of the Surrealist group held in high regard Dali’s ability to willfully channel obsessive delusions and fantasies of the mind into imagery. Though he was eventually expelled from the Surrealist group, Dali continued to create innovative artworks throughout his life. In his work entitled Surrealistic Gastronomy, created as part of his 1971 series MEMORIES OF SURREALISM, he depicts a figure with the head of a moth and the body of a woman. This fusion of disparate elements is something NARITA Tohl also utilized in his kaiju designs. For example, both Cicadaman and Alien Baltan feature a humanoid body with the head of a cicada, conjoined seamlessly without extraneous details. Even though they are kaiju, it is often noted that there is harmony in their forms.

This exhibit also draws attention to the expressive power of isolating a specific part of the body. If we look at Dali’s the Eye of Surrealistic Time, KUDO Tetsumi’s Cage in the Cage in the Cage (1976), and TOYOSHIMA Hironao’s collection of etchings titled Cry, we see each artist giving the eye a prominent role to achieve a variety of intentions. Some of these works may appear violent, but is it not the case that such extraordinary sights can help us re-examine the value of our ordinary, peaceful everyday lives?

William BLAKE was a renowned pioneer of poetry during the Romantic period* in England. And while he worked as an engraver, creating works such as reproduction copperplate engravings of artists active in the era, he also was an artist in his own right and created his own works. Inspired by illuminated manuscripts from medieval times, Blake produced original works that married the text-based artistry of poetry with the image-based artistry of painting through watercolors and prints. Mysterious and idiosyncratic, Blake’s world of artistry was poorly understood during his lifetime, and he is said to have been seen as a madman. His poems were first translated in Japan during the Meiji Period. By the arrival of the Taisho Period, Blake’s paintings were showcased alongside his poetry in Shirakaba-ha’s literary magazine and exhibitions, having a profound influence on not only literary figures, but also Japanese artists of the time.

These works are a series of 22 copperplate engravings based on the Book of Job, a story from the Old Testament that recounts Job, a man of deep faith who lived a morally irreproachable life. Upon being goaded by Satan (the Devil), God subjects Job to a series of arduous ordeals. This thought-provoking narrative, which examines the very nature of faith, continues to raise many questions even today.

Blake expressed this profound and captivating story using copperplate engraving techniques, which allow for detailed pieces by carving lines into copper plates with a burin, a sharp engraving tool. With the exceptional skills he honed as an engraver, Blake carved a vision perceivable only by him into rhythmical, beautiful lines, creating a microcosm that stirs the viewer’s imagination.

*An artistic movement that emerged in Europe from the late 18th through 19th century. In contrast to Classicism, which focused on reason and form, Romanticists turned their attention to the inner world and spirit of the individual, opting to pursue free expression.

NARA Yoshitomo, an artist from Aomori Prefecture active both in Japan and abroad, has captured the hearts of many people across countries and generations with his paintings depicting such things as solitary children with piercing gazes or his humorous yet somehow sad three-dimensional works of dogs. The Aomori Museum of Art began collecting Nara’s works in 1998, before the museum opened, and now has amassed over 170 of his pieces in its collection.

In the spring of 2025, NARA Yoshitomo’s A Landscape with “Kaccho” (1979), an invaluable oil painting from his early period, was donated to the museum by SUGITO Hiroshi, a fine arts professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts and fellow artist. Sugito is a former student of Nara’s, who worked at a preparatory school as a part-time tutor while attending the Aichi Prefectural University of the Arts, where he was also Sugito’s senior. Due to certain circumstances, Sugito had long been carefully safeguarding A Landscape with “Kaccho”.

Despite their teacher-student relationship, even after Sugito became active as a painter himself, they remained close, both as good friends and, occasionally, as rivals. In 2004, they undertook a several-month residency together in Vienna, and the collaborative works produced during that time were exhibited in Germany under the title Over the Rainbow.

Alongside Nara’s individual works, we are now exhibiting the collaborative pieces created through his partnership with Sugito. We hope you will enjoy Over the Rainbow, the joint result of two artists who remain steadfastly devoted to the classical style of painting, while pursuing their own unique creative worlds, converging into one.