8.19 – 10.19
The National Art Center, Tokyo（Roppongi）
Matsumoto Yoko, Light Shining in Wilderness I, 1992, acrylic on canvas, 182 x 182cm
Photo Yamamoto Tadasu, courtesy hino gallery
Noguchi Rika The Sun #23, 2008, C-print 40.3 x 60.3 cm
Courtesy the artist and Gallery Koyanagi
A two-person show by Matsumoto Yoko (painting) and Noguchi Rika (photography). The work of these two artists, who represent totally different generations and genres and who apparently hadn’t met before undertaking this exhibition, share one important element: light. This is the first major show in an art museum for four years for Matsumoto, who presents some 50 pieces stretching back to the 1980s, and the first in five years for Noguchi, who presents some 100 pieces from series she’s worked on over the last ten years. Although abstract in style, Matsumoto’s paintings seem to vividly evoke somehow nostalgic scenes due to their lavish incorporation of light. On the other hand, Noguchi’s photographs, notwithstanding the fact that they capture light directly, seem to open up a conceptual world that transcends everyday scenes. Light is a subject that has been dealt with time and time again in paintings and photographs over the course of the history of art. It is also a theme that is universal to all of humankind. Visitors would do well to pause to reflect for a while before sitting on one of the sofas in the entrance with its undulating glass walls and bathing in the sun.
The National Art Center, Tokyo
http://www.nact.jp/exhibition_special/2009/03/hikari.html