The Ryushi Memorial Museum has about 140 Ryushi's powerful Japanese-style paintings and displays them according to themes.

“Ryushi Kawabata Plus One” is a project that attempts to see what kind of resonance can be evoked by adding contemporary artists to Ryushi’s paintings in collaboration with the Ryutaro Takahashi Collection.

Ryutaro Takahashi is a psychiatrist and famous collector of contemporary art. His collection of Juri Hamada is exhibited along with Ryushi Kawabata at the Museum in Otaku, Tokyo.

In the first half of the exhibition, Juri Hamada is featured. She has created dynamic and colorful works on the theme of life in nature, and land on a big folding screen. The works are "Genesis: Joy" (2023), "Genesis" (2022), and "From the Forest of the Blue Land" (2016). You may be overwhelmed by her large-scale paintings which are over 16 meters wide.

Her works overturned stereotypes of Japanese style painting in terms of techniques, sensibilities, aesthetics, and styles. I had an impression that Japanese-style painting uses subdued colors and elegant and calm motifs.

Hamada spent her childhood in Indonesia. Her works are based on her memories there, the distinctive red color of Indonesia’s soil. The sheet dimension of this primordial landscape motivates her quest to depict life energy.

Ryushi Memorial Museum is celebrating its 60th anniversary and seeks a new perspective to view Ryushi’s work by adding new colors and styles. 

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https://www.takahashi-collection.com/en/exhibitions/