Exhibition Overview
Sekine Shōji was born in what is now Shirakawa City in Fukushima Prefecture, the second son of a laborer who divided his time between agriculture and other work. At the age of nine, he came to Tokyo to live in the neighborhood of Fukagawa, Kōtō.
Thoughts of Death, painted when he was sixteen years old, was selected for display at the 2nd Nika Exhibition, thus giving him his start as an artist.
In the 5th Nika Exhibition held in 1918, three of his paintings, The Sorrow of Faith, Older Sister and Younger Brother, and Self-Portrait won the Chogyū Prize ― a prize for newly emerging artists. These paintings blended fresh, vivid colors ― deep blues and greens, as well as the vermillion that came to be described as "Sekine's vermillion" ― with a visionary, almost hallucinatory quality. After that, he created some of his best-known pieces, including Prayers to God, Three Stars, and Child, but he fell ill and passed away at the young age of twenty years and two months.
Twenty years after the exhibition celebrating the centenary of his birth, this new exhibition brings together newly discovered works and materials, as well as works by artists who were close to him. The goal is to reexamine with fresh eyes the career of Sekine Shōji, an artist oftern described as a genius who died too young. This is the largest exhibition of Sekine's work in history, containing approximately one hundred of his works, sixty pieces of correspondence and other materials, and fifty works and documents related to artists connected with him.
Hours and Admissions
Hours: 9:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Entry is permitted thirty minutes before the galleries are closed.
Closed: Mondays (except 13 January), 29 December 2019 - 3 January 2020, 14 January
Admission:
Adults: 900（700）yen
Students in University/College: 700（500） yen
Students in High school and under: Free
Prices in parentheses are for advance ticket and groups of more than 20 persons.
Persons with disability, one person accompanying them are admitted free of charge.
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Events During the Exhibition
Lecture “Wandering, broken heart, and toward the holy place ーthe world of Sekine Shōji”
Saturday, 30 November 2019
14:00-15:30
At the auditorium
Free of Charge
Japanese only
Lecturer: Murata Masahiro (Director of Toyota Municipal Museum of Art)
Capacity: 150
Performance "Poems and Songs related Sekine Shōji"
Tuesday, 10 December 2019, 15:00-15:30
Sunday, 19 January 2020, 15:00-15:30
At the auditrium
Produced by Narumi Kōhei (Dainana Gekijō)
Performanced by Ōka Sayoko (10 December), Sanami Manami, Dainana Gekijō
Admission: 500 yen
Gallery Talk of the Exhibition Curator
Saturday, 14 December
Saturday, 12 January
14:00-14:20
In the exhibition rooms
For everyone, Japanese only
*Exhibition ticket is required.
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