Brief museum round-up
May. 20th, 2015 17:12![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starladyThe Bridgestone Museum
This is the favorite Tokyo museum of the father-in-law of a good friend of mine, and my friend B and I more or less randomly glommed onto a line of old ladies who were queueing to get in on the Monday of Golden Week, since it closed for renovation last Monday for a period of several years. The farewell exhibit was "The Best of the Best" and was more or less the collection's greatest hits. They had a few very fine Monets, some really interesting contemporary Asian art, and two really great Meiji-era Art Nouveau paintings, Aoki Shigeru's Paradise under the Sea and Fujishima Takeji's Reminiscence of the Tenpyo Era. I wish more Japanese Western-style art of the period had taken on that sort of approach. Female artist count: two works (two different women) out of 161.
Pola Museum Annex
It was totally by chance that I realized that this museum is in the same building as one of my favorite cafes in all of Tokyo. I'd wanted to go because it's free and it's currently hosting a series of paper sculptures by Su Blackwell, who does amazing art made out of books. The level of detail and the sheer craftsmanship that went into each of her pieces is amazing, and both B and I were, it's fair to say, enchanted. Even better, there were some of our favorite books in the exhibit, including The Dark Is Rising and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I'm considering going to the actual Pola Museum, except it's in Hakone, which has that whole volcano thing going on right now. (Also I really dislike Cezanne, the current main exhibition.) We'll see.
The Ghibli Museum
It's been seven years (goodness) since my one and only prior visit to the Ghibli Museum, and they still won't let adults go on the Cat Bus. That sadness was offset by the fact that they now make Ghibli Museum beer, available in the cafe for quite a reasonable price. As much of a pain as it is to buy tickets for the museum (crucial realization: you can use the Lawson tickets website to scope out which days and times are available before going to the actual Lawson, or maybe your web browser will let you actually buy tickets online), they're quite reasonably priced for a few hours of being totally enchanted by the museum itself. I understood much more of the exhibits on the principles of animation this time around (funny how being literate will help with that) but I was, overall, just as pleased by the experience, which is still utterly charming. Miyazaki couldn't buy his pseudo-European palace house, so he built it himself in Mitaka. Also this time the movie playing in the theater was "Mei and the Kitten Bus," which is a vignette follow-up to My Neighbor Totoro and was vast improvement on the sexist "Whale Hunt" short that was on offer the last time I visited. The kitten bus was adorable, to no one's surprise.
This is the favorite Tokyo museum of the father-in-law of a good friend of mine, and my friend B and I more or less randomly glommed onto a line of old ladies who were queueing to get in on the Monday of Golden Week, since it closed for renovation last Monday for a period of several years. The farewell exhibit was "The Best of the Best" and was more or less the collection's greatest hits. They had a few very fine Monets, some really interesting contemporary Asian art, and two really great Meiji-era Art Nouveau paintings, Aoki Shigeru's Paradise under the Sea and Fujishima Takeji's Reminiscence of the Tenpyo Era. I wish more Japanese Western-style art of the period had taken on that sort of approach. Female artist count: two works (two different women) out of 161.
Pola Museum Annex
It was totally by chance that I realized that this museum is in the same building as one of my favorite cafes in all of Tokyo. I'd wanted to go because it's free and it's currently hosting a series of paper sculptures by Su Blackwell, who does amazing art made out of books. The level of detail and the sheer craftsmanship that went into each of her pieces is amazing, and both B and I were, it's fair to say, enchanted. Even better, there were some of our favorite books in the exhibit, including The Dark Is Rising and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I'm considering going to the actual Pola Museum, except it's in Hakone, which has that whole volcano thing going on right now. (Also I really dislike Cezanne, the current main exhibition.) We'll see.
The Ghibli Museum
It's been seven years (goodness) since my one and only prior visit to the Ghibli Museum, and they still won't let adults go on the Cat Bus. That sadness was offset by the fact that they now make Ghibli Museum beer, available in the cafe for quite a reasonable price. As much of a pain as it is to buy tickets for the museum (crucial realization: you can use the Lawson tickets website to scope out which days and times are available before going to the actual Lawson, or maybe your web browser will let you actually buy tickets online), they're quite reasonably priced for a few hours of being totally enchanted by the museum itself. I understood much more of the exhibits on the principles of animation this time around (funny how being literate will help with that) but I was, overall, just as pleased by the experience, which is still utterly charming. Miyazaki couldn't buy his pseudo-European palace house, so he built it himself in Mitaka. Also this time the movie playing in the theater was "Mei and the Kitten Bus," which is a vignette follow-up to My Neighbor Totoro and was vast improvement on the sexist "Whale Hunt" short that was on offer the last time I visited. The kitten bus was adorable, to no one's surprise.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-05-20 12:31 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-05-20 12:52 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-05-20 14:33 (UTC)I don't think we even saw the kids' one when we were there a few years ago, but IIRC we spent most of our time at the museum inside.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-05-21 02:25 (UTC)One of the best experiences of my life was visiting Ghibli Studio when they were making Ponyo. Art for it was everywhere. The artists all had windows in front of their desks, except for one desk facing an incredible painting on the wall, of a window looking out on a fantasy landscape. Miyazaki had felt sorry for the artist facing the wall, so he painted him a view.