Olafur Eliasson creates work that's truly of our time. This exhibition is closed on Tuesday, except April 30. While initially modest in size, these cut-outs grew in scale to become murals spanning entire walls: the largest example featured here is some eight metres wide.Īlso on show is a selection of works in other media, including painting, ink brush on paper, and stained glass. Works on loan from the Matisse Museum in Nice, France show how the artist began creating expressionistic collages composed of scissor-cut pieces of paper in a multitude of colours.The subjects and themes of these cutout works included the female form, avian life, and a distinctive twodimensional take on the flowersand-fruit still life. This is the very first exhibition in Japan to focus on the French artist’s work with paper cut-outs, the medium he energetically pursued in the last decade-and-a-half of his life. Renowned 20th century master Henri Matisse (1869-1954), though best known as a painter, was a true multimedia artist whose creativity also spanned sculpture, printmaking and other forms.
Note that tickets are not available at the door they must be purchased in advance online. Some more recent pieces, such as 2021’s poignant 'Every Day I Pray for Love' included here, combine in a single work the above-mentioned extremes of vividness and darkness, in what might be the culmination of a life similarly coloured by both spectacular success and deep despair. The '80s and '90s then saw Kusama employ colour so intense that it could induce dizziness, aligning in spirit with the disorientation created by her infinity rooms. This practice in turn evolved by the 1970s – when the artist returned to Japan – into a richly poetic use of colour, as seen in the painting 'Summer Comes to a Hat' (1979) whose hues emit a neon-like glow. This exhibition, at the artist’s dedicated Tokyo museum, traces in detail the evolution of Kusama’s distinctive colour expression from the late 1940s through to the present decade.ĭarkly surreal hues are evident in the earliest work featured here, but following her relocation to the US in 1957, Kusama replaced these with more austere colour schemes as she intently pursued a sense of self-obliteration.
While you’re there, make sure to check out the Japanese-style light-up event Hana Akari at nearby Hana Biyori garden.įamous worldwide for her polka dot-covered pumpkins and sense-scrambling infinity rooms, Yayoi Kusama has also spent her lengthy career working with colour palettes more advanced than the simple two-tone schemes of her 2D and 3D-rendered fruits. Look out for the fountain’s flames and lasers, which are synchronised to music. There are three kinds of shows that happen every 15 minutes from 5pm daily. The highlight, however, is the fountain show, with illuminated water in different colours being sprayed into the air to create stunning shapes. In addition to the rainbow-lit, 180-metre-long Lover’s Promenade and Passage of Love tunnel, you’ll spot illuminations of the word ‘love’ in different languages. The park is split into ten areas where visitors can expect to be treated to beautifully lit attractions. As the name might suggest, jewels are the focus here: literally millions of colourful LEDs are set up throughout the vast theme park evoking sparkling gems. Yomiuri Land's annual winter light show will bedazzle even the most ardent illumination-fiend. If you’re looking for the most OTT illumination in Tokyo, this is it. See this feature to learn how to get your tickets in advance. Note: Ghibli Museum tickets are not available at the door. This showcase is divided into three parts, and will tentatively run through to May 2025: check the Ghibli Museum website for details. This special exhibition presents the original drawings used in the film’s production process, revealing that in the form of still frames too, Ghibli’s creations possess expressive power. At this point in the 21st century, the reality is that even most 'hand-drawn' anime productions involve extensive use of digital tools, making ‘The Boy and the Heron’ something of a rarity. The result is a production in which the presence of Miyazaki and his team of artists and animators is tangible. In the production process of 'The Boy and the Heron', virtually all of the drawings used were pencil-drawn onto paper, while backgrounds were hand-painted with poster colours. Marking the release of director Hayao Miyazaki’s new film 'The Boy and the Heron' (also known as 'How do You Live?' in Japanese), the museum dedicated to anime powerhouse Studio Ghibli presents a behind-the-scenes look at the hand-drawn animation that contributes so much to the movie’s charm.