The Toyota Municipal Museum of Art Collection

The Toyota Municipal Museum of Art aims to create a collection that provides an overview of art after modernism, both from Japan and other countries, where each visitor can experience and share the creativity of the artists.

Foreign Modern Art

The Toyota Municipal Museum of Art focuses on the movement of the Wiener Moderne which headed towards a total work of art connecting the arts and design, and center our collection around the works of the Wiener Secession. Along with portraits by Gustav Krimt and Egon Shiele, the museum holds self portraits by Oskar Kokoschka, which accompanied by their drawings, create a unique collection.
Often seen as the beginning of contemporary art, works of Dada and Surrealism are also an important core of the museum collection. The museum holds work by Rene Magritte, Max Ernst, Jean Arp, Salvador Dali, and also offers a view of work by artists of the era who largely influenced contemporary art, such as Constantine Brâncuşi and Alberto Giacometti.

Japanese Modern Art

Shunso Hishida, Taikan Yokoyama, and Kanzan Shimomura are artists central to the pursuit of a new Japanese expression of art in the Meiji era. The museum holds their work, along with the work of artists, who under their influences, continued this search for new expression. The list includes Shiko Imamura, Mifune Hayami, Yukihiko Yasuda and Hako Irie.
During this same period, new expressions were under experimentation in the field of Western style paintings. The collection of “Western Paintings”, including the work of Ryusei Kishida, who from Realism led to a unique Oriental expression, and Toji Fujita, who’s milky-white skinned portraits became a phenomenon in Paris, provides a view into Japan’s inner struggle after the rapid modernization, and is an important aspect of the museum’s collection.

Modern Design and Craft

Modern Design, beginning from William Morris of Britain, developed with an ambition to create a new society and space of living. Charles Rennie Mackintosh who worked in Glasgow. Josef Hoffman, and the Vienna Workshop where he played a central role. The American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. The museum holds a large collection of original furniture and designs, housing blueprints by these figures. The museum also holds industrial products designed by Peter Behrens, functionalist furniture by Gerrit Thomas Rietveld, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Le Corbusier, and provides a view into the birth of Modern Design as a foreshadowing into the era of mass industrialization.

Contemporary Art

When organizing exhibitions, we have always tried to commit in creating new values within the viewers, whether the objects new or old. Inevitably, the work by artists who live the same era as us, contemporary art is an important asset of the museum.
Our collection centers around European contemporary art, the work of post-World War 2 artists who have constantly questioned pre-existing values… Francis Bacon, who approached the very roots of the human existance, Nouveau Realism by such artists as Yves Klein and Christo, German artists beginning from Josef Beuys. We are especially known for our collection of the Italian Arte Povera.
As for Post-WW2 Japanese contemporary art, from the Gutai group artists such as Kauo Shiraga and Atsuko Tanaka, to conceptual art such as seen in the works of On Kawahara and Yu Matsuzawa, the “Mono” group and surrounding artists such as Jiro Takamatsu, Lee U-Fan to Koji Enokura creates the core of the collection. It is our constant challenge to utilize different media from around the world, to continue to expand our collection alongside artists who question new values, beginning with the local artists of Aichi prefecture.