Nakahara Junichi Exhibition

So I finally made it to the Nakahara Junichi exhibition at the SOGO Museum of Art in the SOGO Yokohama department store. It had been on my to do list for ages and I'm glad I did. I would have regretted it like the Francis Bacon. It rivalled the ‘All You Need is Love’ exhibition at Mori Art Museum. It's definitely one of my favourite things I've seen so far this year in times of art.

Let me start with the space, being in a department store I was wary of the size of the gallery. I didn't want to end up paying ¥1000 entry for just a room with a few sketches. However I was not to be disappointed the space was a good size and exhibition large and varied. It reminded me of a Klimt exhibition I saw in Budapest there were so sketches, magazines, address books, postcards, art work, notes, posters etc. great examples of Nakahara’s work spanning the decades. Everything being in Japanese (the only downside to the exhibition) I don’t know if there from the Nakahara estate or from private collections or from on loan from other galleries. I’m guessing a mixture of all three. But I couldn’t help but think how amazing to have an original, postcard or magazine featuring his work!

Whether you're into Japanese art and illustration, textiles, dolls, kawaii, fashion (Western or Japanese), the exhibition had something for everyone. Though I must admit and unsurprisingly there were few men at the exhibition.That was lots of black spanning the entire length of his career. I don't think I saw a single dress or sketch design I didn't like. It made me want to look into more about kimonos, yukata and fashion in general, mostly the progression from traditional Japanese clothing particularly during and after WW2. I'm not really much of a fashionista but the detail was just exquisite and just so pretty and lovely. It was also great to see not exactly East meets West but East AND West. There were no dresses trying to be kimonos and no kimonos trying to be dresses. He just very diverse and created works in two very different styles.
Needless to say I bought many postcards. I was tempted to buy the exhibition catalogue but as unsurprisingly it was in Japanese. I don't really have a problem with that as it's really for the pictures. But I would like to know names of pieces further information. All in all I had lots of fun and loved exhibition. However, I would only go back to the SOGO Museum of Art if there was something that I particularly wanted to see. Unlike the Kamakura Museum of Modern Art I would visit there just for the sake of it despite being smaller and the same price entry. It has the added bonus of its location and tranquillity. Yup I'm still missing my National Lottery fund galleries of London!