iTokyo Station GalleryMarunouchi
Nikolai Astrup: Creating a Garden
Retrospective of about 130 works by the Norwegian painter Nikolai Astrup, including oil paintings and woodblock prints depicting seasonal landscapes near Jolster Lake, Norway.
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Preview: written before the show opened
About 130 works by Nikolai Astrup (1880-1928) fill the brick galleries, and the gallery calls it the first major retrospective of the Norwegian painter in Japan. Astrup spent most of his life near Lake Jølster in south-western Norway, and the show follows how the same landscape changes with the seasons.
It is not only paintings. Oil paintings hang alongside his woodblock prints, which draw on ukiyo-e, and textile designs, a side of his work that is getting new attention. Press coverage also points to his childhood, where his mother was a textile artist, and to the textile work they made together.
Late January in Tokyo is brown and dry, and Astrup's apple trees and foxgloves come in more colours than your balcony basil managed.
Tickets are 1,800 yen (1,600 yen in advance), free for middle school and under. It opens until 20:00 on Fridays, closes on Mondays, and the last entry is 30 minutes before closing.
Editor's pick
About 130 works by the Norwegian painter Nikolai Astrup: oils and woodblock prints of the changing seasons around Jølster Lake.
Look for
Blooming Apple Tree (1926-27)
One of the late oil paintings on the list of featured works, with the tree in blossom.
Midsummer Bonfire (1915)
A painting of the Norwegian midsummer fire, one of the featured works.
Digitalis (c. 1920)
A painting of foxgloves, the garden flower the title names.
The woodblock prints
Prints that draw on ukiyo-e, shown beside the oils so you can compare the two media.
The textile designs
Designs from Astrup's work with his mother, a textile artist, which won awards at Norwegian exhibitions.
Good for
- Evening Visits
- Out-Of-Town Guests
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Image credits
7
- Nikolai Astrup: Creating a GardenCourtesy of Tokyo Station Gallery
- Jam Session: The Ishibashi Foundation Collection x Fujii Hikaru "WHOSE LIGHT?"Courtesy of Artizon Museum
- The Strangers' Gaze: Japanese Artists in EuropeCourtesy of Artizon Museum
- Tokyo Station GalleryDaderot / Wikimedia Commons, CC0
- Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, TokyoDaderot, CC0
- Artizon Museumpcs34560 from jawp / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
- National Museum of Modern Art, TokyoKakidai, CC BY-SA 4.0