黑料不打烊

This Museum opened 60 years ago, on April 27, 1963, as the Kyoto Annex Museum to the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (gaining independence as the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto in 1967). Today the museum鈥檚 collection numbers over 15,000 items, of which Western modern art does not account for a large proportion. However, we have acquired a group of important works in this category, with a focus on artistic trends that relate closely to the development of modern art in Japan. Among them are many works and historical materials related to Dada, an iconoclastic movement that subverted the established order and norms of art, questioned its meaning, and opened up new horizons of expression in the 20th century. This time, we are pleased to present works by the Dada affiliates Kurt Schwitters and Max Ernst.

While Dada was originally based in Zurich, Switzerland, artists were engaging in similar activities almost concurrently in other European cities. Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948), a leading figure in Hanover (Germany) Dada whose work spanned the fields of painting, architecture, design, and poetry, is known for 鈥淢erz,鈥� his own term for his practice of making assemblages and collages using discarded materials, scraps of paper, tickets and other objects and fragments found on city streets. Underlying this ongoing project was his experience of World War I and his belief that 鈥渆verything is ruined, the task is to build something new out of the rubble.鈥� This sentiment is reflected in the work shown here, which was created under trying circumstances after he fled to the UK via Norway following the Nazis鈥� seizure of power in Germany.