I visited the DIC Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art, which is set to close on March 31, 2025.
I arrived at the venue at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, March 25, 2025. Even 30 minutes before opening, the parking lot was packed and a long line had already formed.
I was surprised by such a crowd on a weekday.
The exhibition presented about 180 works from the collection across the gardens and every gallery in the museum.
Photography is prohibited throughout the interior of the DIC Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art, so all the photos I took are limited to the exterior.
The interior was spacious, and despite the crowds, I was able to view the works at a relatively relaxed pace.
Rothko Room
The Rothko Room is one of the galleries added in the 2008 extension, designed by architect Hiroshi Nemoto as a dedicated space for Mark Rothko’s Seagram Murals. Created in the late 1950s to adorn an upscale restaurant in New York, the Seagram Murals were meant to fulfill Rothko’s wish to “fill an entire room with only my works” — the first serial project intended for such a setting. Though that plan was never realized, the space arranged in Japan half a century later to embody the painter’s dream envelops viewers as a “site” where painting and architecture are unified, drawing them into a world beyond words.
The Rothko Room was extremely crowded that day, and I heard entry restrictions were being imposed shortly after my visit.
Exhibition Contents
Room 101 From Impressionism to the École de Paris
Room 102 Rembrandt van Rijn
Room 103 The Birth and Development of Abstract Art
Room 110 Prints, Photographs, Drawings
Room 104 Dada, Surrealism and Their Development
Room 105 Joseph Cornell
Room 106 Rothko Room (Seagram Murals)
Room 200 —
Room 201 Frank Stella
Room 202 Abstract Expressionism, Color Field
Room 203 From Neo-Dada to Minimalism to Contemporary Japanese Art
Entrance Hall Aristide Maillol
Foyer Enzo Cucchi
Garden Outdoor Sculptures
After Closing?
After the closing, the DIC Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art’s collection of 20th-century art, including its postwar American holdings, has been decided to be transferred to the International House of Japan.
Notably, seven of Mark Rothko’s Seagram Murals — one of the defining works in the collection — will be relocated to the new West Wing of the International House of Japan, designed by the architectural unit SANAA (Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa). A permanent “Rothko Room” jointly operated by DIC and the International House of Japan will be opened there. The new wing is scheduled to open in 2030.
Thank you.
