(Jiyu Area)
“To be a place where everyone is respected and can be themselves.”
Our Vision for the newly reopened Yokohama Museum of Art begins with these words. The museum’s Jiyu Area is perhaps the purest embodiment of this desire—and it is open to the public free of charge! Pieces from the collection are dotted here and there. So please visit as often as you like and take your time to enjoy the art in this relaxed environment.
[Grand Gallery / Free admission]
Have you noticed the logo we are using for a limited time to commemorate the reopening of the museum? The museum’s original logo, consisting of three squares arranged like a windmill, is placed alongside a new version of the logo in which the squares have been replaced by circles. The commemorative logo acknowledges the museum’s 30 years of history while also expressing a desire to adapt and become more open in the future.
The Jiyu Area’s Grand Gallery is particularly symbolic of this idea—and so this same spirit has informed the placement of the sculptures there. You will see that round- and square-shaped forms have been placed on either side of the grand staircase. Just like in the commemorative logo itself, circles and squares have been used by sculptors to produce all sorts of weird and wonderful shapes. How many can you see?
[Corridor / Free admission]
After the opening of Yokohama Port in 1859, a range of goods were being produced nearby—for export and selling to the residents of the new foreign settlement in the city. Ceramics were one of them.
For this exhibition, ceramics works have been chosen from the collection focusing on the “light” emitted by gilt and glaze. Tiny gilt dots lend an indescribable sparkle to the pieces, while their glassy-surfaced glazes glitter sometimes vividly and sometimes faintly. The longer you look at them, the more their personalities are revealed.
[Gallery 8, Free admission]
What if everything was suddenly inverted? Up was made down, left made right? What if black was made white, the tiny made huge, and the hard made soft...? Your whole mind would be turned upside down and the things around you might suddenly seem different. New ways of thinking and new ways of being would fill the world! For this exhibition, we fill Gallery 8 with art that turns everything around－and delivers the kind of joy and surprise that you might call the most fundamental of museum experiences.
[Gallery 9, Free admission]
During its recent major renovation, the museum got a brand new glass-walled gallery. Bright, sunlit and offering views both in and out, this compact new gallery will now host an exhibition of glass objects from the collection. Even the museum curators gasped at the beauty of the natural light playing on the assembled artworks. Viewed in the morning or the evening, and from inside or outside, the works appear different every time you look at them. So please stop by whenever you can－even if you’re just out for a walk or shopping.
