Modern Paradise

The Museum of Modern Art uncovers some surprises in paradise

Bakusen Tsuchida, Serving Girl at a Spa, 1931 Courtesy of The Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo

On the surface, “Modern Paradise” seems like another familiar summer exhibition filled with notable names that were chosen for their ability to draw visitors in from the heat. But unlike shows that trumpet just a few lesser works by well-known masters, this exhibition provides enough glimpses of lesser-known artists to make it surprisingly fresh and enjoyable.

The real highlights of the show are the contemporary Japanese artists whose works shine in spite of the bigger names. In the opening room, Miyuki Tsugami’s awkwardly titled View—“Cycle” 26 Feb.-10 Apr., 05 <water> (2005) holds its own among works by the likes of Monet and Seurat. Its vibrant colors and verdant swirls of paint manage to pull visitors into its abstract vision of deepening greens and cool purples. Another work rendered with equal ferocity is Keizaburo Okamura’s Yellow Elephant 05-1 (2005). This remarkable image of monstrous dueling elephants is large enough to fill half of one of the museum’s galleries, but it’s the details of the painted and carved surface that are most impressive.

There are also a number of paintings that allow viewers to experience the styles and means of the greatest modern artists. The intense colors and balanced brushstrokes of Matisse’s Etretat Downstream Cliff (1920) are amazing examples of his mastery, and the work reads like an instruction manual for the act of painting. In addition, we find significant moments of Gauguin’s invigorated color, Miro’s delicacy and De Kooning’s indomitable gestures. Though not the best of these artists, each piece brings a palpable energy that infects the whole exhibition.

One finds the truest surprise, Tsuguharu Fujita’s nightmarish Fierce Fighting at the Guadalcanal (1944), in a section of the show dedicated to “dreams.” Lightning flashes in the distance while numerous soldiers lie fallen across the foreground, and one covers his eyes as a sword is thrust at the neck of his comrade. This terrible vision laid to canvas is plotted out in a menacing palette of dark bluish blacks and horribly muddy greens and browns.

Gerhard Richter, Abstract Picture (Red), 1994 Courtesy of The Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. ©Gerhard Richter 2006

Finding this enormous painting in the middle of the otherwise politically ambivalent exhibition has the effect of elevating its presence. It simply sticks out. The work hangs across from a deceptively cheery piece by Austrian Friedensreich Hundertwasser, and the tension between the two transforms the whole section into one of the more affecting presentations of surrealist art in Tokyo in some time.

The rest of the exhibition lacks the energy of that moment and manages mostly to be a cursory examination of art’s past 100 years. It offers a nice opportunity to lose oneself in the painterly worlds of older works, as well as pieces like Gerhard Richter’s Abstract Picture (Red) (1994) and Hiroshi Sugimoto’s ever-pleasing ocean images, which round out the show’s contemporary additions.

The last room of the exhibition, dedicated to visions of paradise, finishes with an almost laughable deluge of nudes (that is, women) reclining or staring towards the viewer with idyllic 19th-century charm. Only the appearance of Okamura’s elephants, the last work of the show, impresses a more compelling vision upon visitors, as their wildly beating eyes see them out of “paradise.”

The Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, until Oct 15. See exhibition listings (Ginza/Kyobashi/Tokyo) for details.

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