Okamoto Taro: A Retrospective

18 October – 28 December 2022
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum

 

The Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art is hosting a major retrospective of the works of Taro Okamoto (1911-1996, Okamoto is his family name), one of Japan’s most notable and influential artistic figures.

After Tokyo, the traveling exhibition will make its last stop in Aichi (from 14 January through 14 March 2023).

About “Okamoto Taro: A Retrospective”

The present exhibition traces the career of Taro Okamoto, offering a comprehensive look at his works from the earliest days to the later years, largely thanks to the Taro Okamoto Museum of Art and the Taro Okamoto Memorial Museum.

Taro Okamoto is a versatile talent with multiple facets, as an avant-garde artist, sculptor, author, ethnographer and photographer.

He is perhaps best known for his work “Tower of the Sun” for the Expo ’70 in Osaka and murals such as “Myth of Tomorrow”.

As young, he began his studies at the School of Fine Arts in Tokyo.

Then he accompanied his parents to go to France, where he would spend twelve years until his return to Japan in 1940 at the start of the war. In Paris, he studied art, painted, learned ethnology and philosophy, while befriending Alberto Giacometti and George Bataille, among others.

Since the end of the World War II, Okamoto had been a leading figure in the Japanese avant-garde art scene.

As photographer and researcher, he also undertook extensive research on sculpture from the prehistoric Jomon era and on Okinawa, the southernmost islands of Japan.

Installation views of “Okamoto Taro: A Retrospective”

Photo credit in Japanese (from top)
・《若い夢》　1974　川崎市岡本太郎美術館
・《森の掟》　1950　川崎市岡本太郎美術館
・《愛》　1961　岡本太郎記念館
・（手前）《装える戦士》　1962　川崎市岡本太郎美術館、ほか
・（左）《燃える人》　1955　東京国立近代美術館、（右）《燃える人》　c.1955　姫路市立美術館
・（左）《ひもの椅子》　1967　川崎市岡本太郎美術館、（中）《ほおずえ》　1968　川崎市岡本太郎美術館、ほか
・（手前）《太陽の塔》(1/50)　1970　川崎市岡本太郎美術館、（背面）《明日の神話》　1968　川崎市岡本太郎美術館

© 岡本太郎記念現代芸術振興財団

Souvenir shop of “Okamoto Taro: A restrospective”

Selfie spots for “Okamoto Taro: A restrospective”