The Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo (MIMT) (Marunouchi, Tokyo) is scheduled to reopen on Saturday, November 23, 2024, after an extended closure for equipment replacement and building maintenance. The museum’s reopening will be celebrated with a special exhibition, Commemorative Reopening Exhibition: Toulouse-Lautrec & Sophie Calle (tentative title), which will run until Sunday, January 26, 2025.
This exhibition will showcase the colorfully expressive prints and posters of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901), an artist who was highly active in late-19th century Paris. Most of the works on show will be from MIMT’s own collection of Toulouse-Lautrec, but there will also be some works by the artist from the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF). The exhibition will also feature some works by leading contemporary French artist Sophie Calle (1953–), including one inspired by Odilon Redon’s Grand Bouquet, which is in the MIMT collection. It will be the first time that the new work by Calle, also donated to the MIMT collection, will be shown publicly anywhere in the world.

【Highlights of the Toulouse-Lautrec Works】

(1) For the first time in 13 years, all 32 of the Toulouse-Lautrec posters from The MIMT Collection will be shown together.
(2) This is a rare opportunity to see 10 prints of Toulouse-Lautrec’s Miss Loie Fuller capturing the American dancer eachprinted in a different color (from the collections of the BnF and MIMT).
(3) Representative portfolio of Toulouse-Lautrec’s prints will be shown. The process of the lithographic printing will be shown by the works of BnF and MIMT.

【Highlights of the Sophie Calle Works】

(1) This collaborative exhibition was originally scheduled for 2020, but had to be cancelled when the COVID-19 pandemic prevented Sophie Calle from coming to Japan. After four years, the show can finally go ahead. It will be the first ever exhibition of a living artist at MIMT.
(2) This will be the first public exhibition of Calle’s new work, Grand Bouquet, inspired by Odilon Redon’s Grand Bouquet, which is in MIMT’s collection.
(3) Approximately 40 works from series that have defined Calle’s art, Because, What Do You See?, Purloined, and In Memory of Frank Gehry’s Flowers, will be displayed.

［Profile of Sophie Calle］

Born 1953, in Paris. For seven years, from her late teens, she travelled far and
wide, returning to Paris at the age of 26. It was only at this time that she began her
creative endeavors. She started showing her work at exhibitions in 1980.
Eventually, she held solo exhibitions at major art venues all around the world,
including London’s Tate (1998), and the Centre Pompidou in Paris (2003). She
represented France for French Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale (2007). Her
shows in Japan have included Exquisite Pain at Hara Museum ARC (1999) and a
solo show at the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art (2003). In addition, her video
work Voir la mer (Seeing the Sea) (2011) was projected for street viewing at Tokyo’s
Shibuya Scramble Crossing in 2019. In autumn 2023, she will hold a solo exhibition
at the Musée Picasso Paris. She is the author of True Stories (Actes Sud, 1994 /
Hontouno-hanashi (in Japanese ) Translated by Kan Nozaki, Heibonsha, 1999).

Sophie Calle  Photographie Yves Géant

　　

［Credits］

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec “Moulin Rouge, La Goulue”, 1891 Color lithograph, 193.8 × 119.3 cm (MIMT collection)

Odilon Redon “Grand Bouquet”, 1901 Pastel on canvas, 248.3 × 162.9 cm (MIMT collection)

Sophie Calle, “Danger”, 2018 Color photograph, embroidered woolen cloth, framing 39 × 49 cm
Sophie Calle / © ADAGP, Paris & JASPAR, Tokyo, 2023 G3368 / Photographer: Claire Dorn
Courtesy of the artist & Perrotin.