Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art.

The final special exhibition?

Katsuhito Nishikawa’s “Sounds of Silence”

About Exhibition
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About Exhibition

Nishikawa Katsuhito “Echoes of Silence”
Saturday, September 14, 2024 – Sunday, January 26, 2025
Time: 9:30-17:00 (entry until 16:30)
Closed: Mondays (open on public holidays), Tuesday, September 17, Tuesday, September 24, Tuesday, October 15, Tuesday, November 5, Tuesday, December 24 – Wednesday, January 1, Tuesday, January 14
Organizer: DIC Corporation
Sponsored by: Chiba Prefecture, Chiba Prefecture Board of Education, Sakura City, Sakura City Board of Education

Report

This is a record of my visit to the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art, which will close in March 2025.

The date of visit was Wednesday, October 30, 2024, and the records are from the date of the visit, and it is entirely possible that the museum’s usage system will change due to congestion at the end of the exhibition period, so we recommend checking the museum’s official information before visiting. This museum implemented a reservation-only system during the COVID-19 pandemic, so it is believed that they have the know-how to operate reservations, etc.

Table of contents of Report

Sounds of Silence
Outdoors
Tea room
Restaurant
About Museum closed

I drove to the museum from Kanagawa Prefecture. Because the traffic on the Shuto Expressway was dreadful, I left home at 6:00 and arrived at Komeda Coffee Sakura Ojidai branch at around 7:30 for breakfast. It took about 30 minutes to get to the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art from here on the local roads, and I left at 8:50 and arrived at the museum at around 9:20.

There were already a few people waiting to buy tickets. Also, at around 9:25, the first free shuttle bus came to the museum with about 20 people from Keisei Sakura Station and JR Sakura Station.

Shuttle bus schedule

The entrance to the museum is next to the ticket machine and on the garden side, but while I was waiting at the entrance next to the ticket machine, a security guard came and opened the gate just before 9:30 and told me, “The gate will be open, but please enter after the bell rings.”

＜Sounds of Silence＞

The exhibition is largely divided into two blocks. One of them is a room that used to display Barnett Newman’s “Anna’s Light” and is currently used as a special exhibition room, which displays Cy Twombly’s sculpture “Untitled” and painting “Untitled”.

This room is characterized by the fact that the works change depending on the time of day because it receives natural light, and the atmosphere of the exhibition room was very different during the day when it was raining in the dim light of the morning and the day when the sun was shining.

The panel work “Still Life” on the front, which is the exhibited work, is made of several layers of panels, and the color of the panels changes depending on the viewing angle and the brightness of the room. And the five glass works “Phizaris” placed on the floor engulf the surrounding trees when the room is dim, and shine with diffused light when the sun shines into the room.

The works change from moment to moment depending on the movement of the sun, the movement of the clouds, and the change in the weather, so rather than viewing them in one go, you will surely see a different view if you walk around the venue and then visit the room again.

The silk works are lined up in the corridor that leads from the first exhibition to the next, and the light reflected by the fibers changes its appearance as you walk through them.

The exhibition room beyond the corridor is divided into two large sections. The first room is like a church, with several objects, photographs and drawings on both sides, a fan-shaped object with shells on the back, and a panel work in front called “Echoes of Silence” that is white but black, but when you get closer you can see that it is navy blue, creating a sense of visual wonder.

The next room is lit only by natural light, and the brightness of the space itself changes depending on the amount of outside light. I was surprised that the color of the exhibition room was completely different when I visited in the morning and in the afternoon after dinner. It was fun to discover the forms that were created by overlapping the works by changing the height of the eyes.

Don’t forget to see No. 73 “Moon of Sakura” in a pond with Chinese geese, swans, and ducks relaxing.

I hope this special exhibition will not be the last.

＜Outdoors＞

The autumn roses in the garden are in full bloom, but the autumn leaves have yet to turn red. In about another month, the maple leaves will turn a beautiful red, but I wonder if I will be able to come and see them? I haven’t been able to visit here in autumn for the past few years.

There are also public artworks on display outdoors. It is unclear what will happen to these with the museum closed.

It seems that the birds are also being fed, but I wonder if this is under the jurisdiction of the research institute?

＜Tea room＞

I entered after the bell rang at 9:30 and went to make a reservation for the tea room, which was by reservation only.

To make a reservation for the tea room, you scan the QR code on the sign in front of the tea room with your smartphone to reserve a spot to use the tea room. You can use it for 30 minutes, with a 15-minute interval, and there are six or seven spots available per day.

I was able to get a spot for 10:30, so I had about an hour before the tea room was available, so I looked around the museum. When I got to the tea room at around 10:25, there were already people lined up. It seems that you need to line up in advance to get a seat by the window.

Payment here is by cash or Paypay, and depending on the mobile carrier, the reception is poor and Paypay payments can get stuck, so it seems safe to set up the free Wi-Fi at the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art.

As the seat by the window had been taken by a previous customer, I sat at the back and enjoyed what might be my last view of the tea room after the person by the window had left, and had tea and sweets at the “Hikari no Hana” (Flowers of Light) for 800 yen and the “Fizzalis” (a menu item in collaboration with the special exhibition) for 1,000 yen.

＜Restaurant＞

I went to the restaurant “Belvedere” at around 10 o’clock to make a reservation for lunch, but the door was not yet open. It seemed that reservations would start a little later. When I went to make a reservation after the opening at 11 o’clock, there were seven groups waiting, so I made a reservation because it looked like I would be able to eat just after noon.

While looking around the works in the museum, I was informed that my seat was ready just after 12 o’clock. You can receive an email notifying you that your seat is ready by using the QR code on the paper issued when you make a reservation.

After receiving the information, I headed to the restaurant, and it was crowded because it was lunchtime even though it was a weekday. Despite the crowds, I was guided to a seat by the window and was able to have lunch while looking at the view.

I ordered roast beef and a pasta dish from the casual course, and the roast beef was served immediately, but the pasta took quite a while to arrive. This restaurant may also be the last one available, so I ordered the special menu of the “Nishikawa Katsuto: Echoes of Silence” exhibition, “Hozuki Cassata” after the meal.

After the meal, I looked at the number of people waiting for the guide and found that there were 12 people waiting. The shop opposite was temporarily closed.

＜About Museum closed＞

On August 27, 2024, DIC Corporation, the parent company of the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art, announced that the museum would be closed from late January 2025 in order to review its management policy.

This is apparently the result of a recommendation by something called the “Value Co-Creation Committee” of DIC Corporation.

This recommendation may come as a surprise to art lovers, who say that capital efficiency is poor compared to the value of the artworks, but in reality, it will be difficult to run the museum in its current location and turn a profit by covering the costs of free shuttle buses, staffing the museum, etc. with admission fees. Therefore, the review of management policies recommended by the “Value Co-Creation Committee” seems to be saying, “Cash on assets with unrealized gains that do not generate money for the company right now.”

In addition, the company has a history of selling artworks to supplement its profits when its performance was poor. Typical examples include the sale of Barnett Newman’s “Anna’s Light” to an overseas company in 2013, and the sale of about 20 Japanese paintings owned by the museum in 2017, which also made the news. This time, the situation seems to be progressing on a larger scale.

If the museum’s founder, Katsumi Kawamura, had donated the artworks to the foundation that runs the museum and the foundation had owned and operated the museum, the possibility of this happening would have been low, and it would have been relatively easy to help with the operation. However, since the artworks are the company’s assets, the only way to counter shareholders who are imposing the logic of capital is to buy the company and become a shareholder, and it seems difficult to achieve that for the museum.

There have been many cases in the past where artworks owned by companies or individuals were dispersed when money ran out, and although it is unclear how this situation will turn out, we can only hope that the artworks will remain and there will be a place to view them.