Tar艒 Okamoto. Reinventing Japan
The exhibition highlights one of the central figures of the Japanese avant-garde, little known in France: the multidisciplinary artist Tar艒 Okamoto.
Tar艒 Okamoto (1911鈥�1996) was a Japanese painter, sculptor, muralist, photographer, writer and researcher. Arriving in Paris in 1929, he gravitated towards the abstract and surrealist movements, and in 1938 trained with Marcel Mauss and Paul Rivet in the ethnology laboratory of the Mus茅e de l'Homme. At the same time, he became close to Georges Bataille and joined the Ac茅phale secret society. He left France in 1940 to return to Japan, where within a decade he would become one of the central figures of the artistic avant-garde, federating several discussion groups in a country that was rebuilding itself.
In an unprecedented dialogue between several of his works and the museum's collections, the exhibition paints a portrait of a major Japanese artist, a whimsical and all-round creator who has remained unknown in France. The exhibition focuses on the period between 1930 and 1970, with the emblematic Tower of the Sun as its vanishing point. This monumental sculpture, built for the 1970 Osaka World Exposition, housed a mysterious underground exhibition of masks and statues.
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The exhibition highlights one of the central figures of the Japanese avant-garde, little known in France: the multidisciplinary artist Tar艒 Okamoto.
Tar艒 Okamoto (1911鈥�1996) was a Japanese painter, sculptor, muralist, photographer, writer and researcher. Arriving in Paris in 1929, he gravitated towards the abstract and surrealist movements, and in 1938 trained with Marcel Mauss and Paul Rivet in the ethnology laboratory of the Mus茅e de l'Homme. At the same time, he became close to Georges Bataille and joined the Ac茅phale secret society. He left France in 1940 to return to Japan, where within a decade he would become one of the central figures of the artistic avant-garde, federating several discussion groups in a country that was rebuilding itself.
In an unprecedented dialogue between several of his works and the museum's collections, the exhibition paints a portrait of a major Japanese artist, a whimsical and all-round creator who has remained unknown in France. The exhibition focuses on the period between 1930 and 1970, with the emblematic Tower of the Sun as its vanishing point. This monumental sculpture, built for the 1970 Osaka World Exposition, housed a mysterious underground exhibition of masks and statues.
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Paris welcomes Okamoto back with an exhibition at the Muse茅 du Quai Branly that places several of his works 鈥� including his monumental sculpture Tower of the Sun, which he made for the Osaka World Expo in 1970 鈥� alongside items from the museum鈥檚 collection.
The Mus茅e du quai Branly 鈥� Jacques Chirac is currently presenting an exhibition dedicated to the multidisciplinary artist Taro Okamoto (1911-1996), a central figure of the Japanese avant-gardes.
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