English

Venue: National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo
7-7, Ueno Koen, Taito-ku, Tokyo

Period: 23 February to 30 May, 2010
Closed on Mondays and 23 March (except for 22 March and 3 May)
9:30-17:30 (closed at 20:00 on Fridays)

Organized by The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo and The Yomiuri Shimbun.

With the support of Agency for Cultural Affairs, British Council, Embassy of Belgium, The Japan-Belgium Society, JAPANESE SOCIETY FOR THE SCIENCE OF DESIGN, and TBS RADIO & COMMUNICATIONS, INC.

With the sponsorship of EPSON, Shimizu Corporation, Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd., and Art Yomiuri Co., Ltd.

With the assistance of Japan Airlines, Nippon Cargo Airlines, POLA Art Foundation, and The Western Art Foundation.


Frank Brangwyn (1867-1956) was born into a British family living in Bruges, Belgium, and moved to London with his family in 1874. In his formative years he was influenced by Japonisme, the Arts and Crafts Movement, A H Mackmurdo and William Morris, who employed the young man for a few years in the 1880s. Brangwyn's success as an independent artist was marked by paintings exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London and the Paris Salons, while he also demonstrated his talent in other artistic media, such as mural paintings, crafts, and prints. Brangwyn was famous throughout Europe and in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States of America.

Brangwyn was also well known in Japan. He advised Matsukata on the purchase of art works in Europe, and sold many of his own major works to Matsukata from 1917 until the early years of the next decade. Matsukata's collection of European art became the largest in Japan before the Second World War. Unfortunately, almost all of Brangwyn's works in the collection were destroyed when the London warehouse in which they were stored burnt down in October 1939.

Brangwyn also designed the museum for Matsukata's planned but never executed Kyoraku Bijutsukan in Tokyo. Brangwyn is known to have sent both building designs and installation plans to Matsukata.

The Exhibition of Frank Brangwyn will focus on two main points, Brangwyn the artist and his relationship with Matsukata. In the first part, the exhibition will discuss the importance of Brangwyn's art in the context of British art from the end of the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century. The second part of the exhibition will focus on Brangwyn's working relationship with Matsukata and his designs for the Kyoraku Bijutsukan. Through his position as a significant partner in Matsukata's plans, Brangwyn, a great admirer of Japanese arts and crafts, sought to contribute to the transplanting of European Art into modern Japanese society. While their dream, in the end, was left unrealized due to Matsukata's bankruptcy and to the London warehouse fire, the various aspects of Brangwyn's art should be considered in the context of the Kyoraku Bijutsukan and the Matsukata collection.

This exhibition is very important because it celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the inauguration of the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo and is also the first retrospective exhibition of Brangwyn's art to be held in Japan. While not yet well known in Japan, Brangwyn has begun to be recognized as one of the most important modern decorative artists in Europe. This highly original exhibition, highlighting the work of both Brangwyn and Matsukata, is apposite for the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo with its Matsukata Collection.