The Graduation and Completion Works Exhibition of Tokyo University of the Arts
An exhibition of works by the graduating and program-completing students of Tokyo University of the Arts, “The Graduation and Completion Works Exhibition of Tokyo University of the Arts.”
It is an exhibition where you can see, with your own eyes, a great many works spanning from the Geidai campus all the way to the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum.
There are so many works that seeing them all is quite an undertaking, but judging from the information flowing across Twitter, the students themselves appear to be facing a troubling predicament.
The Fate of Large-Scale Works
Among the works shown at the graduation exhibition, those the university purchases are said to be mostly the students’ “self-portraits.”
Occupying a particularly large share of the collection is a genre called “student productions.” Since its founding, the Tokyo School of Fine Arts collected works by its students. These include regular productions made as ordinary assignments, as well as graduation and completion productions—outstanding works purchased at the time of graduation or program completion. Best known among them are surely the self-portraits from the Oil Painting (Western Painting) department. Because these graduates went on to become masters, these holdings have become a body of works indispensable to any account of Japan’s modern and contemporary art history. — from the website of The University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts
But even calling it a purchase, the sum these days is said to be a rock-bottom 5,000 yen…
On the other hand, most large-scale works, which require storage space, end up being taken back by the students themselves. Amid Japan’s housing conditions—derided from abroad as “rabbit hutches”—how many students can properly take such works home? Are there collectors who would immediately put them on the market and add them to their holdings? It is, one must say, an extremely difficult situation.
Such students are turning to social media to find someone to take their large works off their hands. Each uses the phrase “please share,” seeking a new owner for the pieces once the graduation show is over.
I, too, tried tracing my connections to find a home for them, but a good place is hard to come by.
I have had the chance to see some of these wonderful works.
May they each find a good place to be welcomed somewhere…
Overview
The Graduation and Completion Works Exhibition of Tokyo University of the Arts
January 28 (Sun) – February 3 (Sat), 2018
9:30 – 17:30 (entry until 17:00) / Final day 9:30 – 12:30 (entry until 12:00)
・Undergraduate: Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, 8-36 Ueno Park, Taito-ku, Tokyo
・Graduate: The University Art Museum / on campus, 12-8 Ueno Park, Taito-ku, Tokyo
