MUSEUM
YUTAKA MATSUZAWA: TOWARDS QUANTUM ART
January 26 – May 7, 2020
John Young Museum of Art, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Events + Programs (events are free and open to the public)
Friday, January 24, Tokioka Room, Moore 319
12:00 – 1:30 p.m., Public lecture by Dr. Reiko Tomii, “Localizing Collectivism: Do-It-Yourself DNA in Modern and Contemporary Art in Japan”
Sunday, January 26
2:00 – 3:00 p.m., Program; Walkthrough of the exhibition with co-curators Alan Longino and Dr. Reiko Tomii
3:00 – 5:00 p.m., Opening Reception
Monday, January 27, Art Building, Room 101
4:00 – 5:00 p.m., Public lecture by Alan Longino and Reiko Tomii
Yutaka Matsuzawa: Towards Quantum Art is the first major solo exhibition in the United States that presents the work of the elder statesman of Japanese conceptualism, Yutaka Matsuzawa (1922–2006). It is also the first presentation of Matsuzawa’s work in Hawaiʻi. Matsuzawa emerged in the early 1960s with his singular text-based practice as part of the country’s Anti-Art (Han-geijutsu) movement. His conceptualism combines his eschewal of materialism with an eclectic interest in philosophy and religion (especially non-Zen Buddhism), the occult and parascience, as well as UFOs and contemporary physics (especially quantum physics and astrophysics). The result was “art of kannen,” wherein kannen signifies both the modern sense of “idea” and the ancient Buddhist sense of “meditative visualization,” that would transcend time and space with a far-reaching implication for human civilization.
Co-curated by Alan Longino and Dr. Reiko Tomii, the exhibition features Matsuzawa’s original works made between 1964–1988. The show originated at Yale Union, Portland, OR. The artist’s seminal publication, Quantum Art Manifesto (1988), has also been re-published for the first time in nearly three decades. This new publication includes a text by Dr. Tomii and foreword by Haruo Matsuzawa and will be available at the exhibition. All works are borrowed from the Kumiko Matsuzawa collection in Japan.
Bios
Yutaka Matsuzawa (1922–2006) studied architecture at Waseda University, Tokyo, before embarking on his work as Japan’s pioneer conceptual artist. Since 1963, solo exhibitions have included “Matsuzawa Yutaka’s Ritual for Vanishing of All Matter,” Modern Art Center of Japan, Tokyo (1966), a solo show at Art & Project, Amsterdam (1971) and “To Spiritualism: Yutaka Matsuzawa 1954–1997” at the Kawaguchi Museum of Contemporary Art, Kawaguchi (1997). His work has appeared at the Venice Biennale (1976), the São Paulo Biennial (1977), the Tate Modern, the Kunsthalle München, the Japan Society, New York and the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art and appears in major collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Alan Longino is an art historian and curator from Biloxi, MS. His M.A. thesis in Art History from CUNY Hunter College (2017) focused on Yutaka Matsuzawa and the artist’s concept of the event of telepathy as a source of image production.
Dr. Reiko Tomii is a New York-based scholar and curator who investigates post-1945 Japanese art as a vital element of the world art history of modernisms. She worked with the artist on major projects prior to his death in 2006, including Global Conceptualism(1999) at the Queens Museum of Art in New York.
Sponsors
The exhibition is sponsored by the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s Department of Art & Art History and College of Arts & Humanities; Center for Japanese Studies; the John Young Foundation, the Cooke Foundation; the Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts through appropriations from the Legislature of the State of Hawai‘i and by the National Endowment for the Arts; Halekulani Hotel – Hospitality Sponsor for the Arts at UH Mānoa; UHM Student Activity and Program Fee Board; and anonymous donors.
The JOHN YOUNG MUSEUM OF ART is located in Krauss Hall at 2500 Dole Street Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96822 (Directions).
Museum hours & admission
Sunday – Friday 12 – 4 pm.
Closed Saturdays; Presidents Day, Feb. 17; Prince Kūhiō Day, Mar. 26; Good Friday, Apr. 10; Easter, Apr. 12.
By appointment Spring Recess, Mar. 16–20. Closed Presidents Day, Feb. 17; Prince Kūhiō Day, Mar. 26; Good Friday, Apr. 10; Easter, Apr. 12.
Admission is free.
During weekdays parking fees may apply; parking is free on Sundays.
For more information please contact Sharon Tasaka at 808.956.8364 and gallery@hawaii.edu