The is a museum built directly into a southern portion of the island of Naoshima

Naoshima, Kagawa

is an island town administratively part of Kagawa District, Kagawa, Japan located in the Seto Inland Sea. As of 2003, the town has an estimated population of 3,583 and a density of 251.97 persons per km². The total area is 14.22 km²....

 in Kagawa Prefecture

Kagawa Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located on Shikoku island. The capital is Takamatsu.- History :Kagawa was formerly known as Sanuki Province.For a brief period between August 1876 and December 1888, Kagawa was made a part of Ehime Prefecture.-Battle of Yashima:...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. It was designed by architect Tadao Ando

Tadao Ando

is a Japanese architect whose approach to architecture was once categorized by Francesco Dal Co as critical regionalism. Ando has led a storied life, working as a truck driver and boxer prior to settling on the profession of architecture, despite never having taken formal training in the field...

 and opened its doors to the public on July 18, 2004.

Background

The subterranean museum is under the administration of the Naoshima Fukutake Art Museum Foundation, a project of the Benesse Corporation

Benesse

is a Japanese company which focusses on correspondence education and publishing. Based in Okayama-City, it is the parent company of Berlitz Language Schools, which in turn is the parent company of ELS Language Centers...

 whose president Soichiro Fukutake

Soichiro Fukutake

is the president of Benesse Corporation, a Japanese company best known for its distance learning and test preparation schools. In 2006, Fukutake - who has a net worth of over 1.2 billion US dollars - was ranked among the top ten richest people in Japan by Forbes magazine.Fukutake's father founded...

 also acts as director

Director-general

The term director-general is a title given the highest executive officer within a governmental, statutory, NGO, third sector or not-for-profit institution.-European Union:...

 of the facility. It exists as part of an ongoing initiative to "rethink the relationship between nature and people," and is one of several arts-related sites generating tourist interest in the area.

Despite its position buried underground, the design of the building is such that it facilitates the exclusive use of natural light to illuminate a number of the exhibits, changing their appearance at different viewing times throughout the day and, in essence, encompassing the building itself within the same realm as the art on display.

Exhibited works

The site features permanent installations by Walter De Maria

Walter De Maria

-Early life and career:De Maria was born in Albany, California on October 1, 1935. He studied history and art at the University of California, Berkeley from 1953 to 1959. Although trained as a painter, De Maria soon turned to sculpture and began using other media...

 and James Turrell

James Turrell

James Turrell is an American artist primarily concerned with light and space. Turrell was a MacArthur Fellow in 1984. He is represented by The Pace Gallery in New York...

, as well as painted works in the Water Lilies

Water Lilies

Water Lilies is a series of approximately 250 oil paintings by French Impressionist Claude Monet . The paintings depict Monet's flower garden at Giverny and were the main focus of Monet's artistic production during the last thirty years of his life...

series by Claude Monet

Claude Monet

Claude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. . Retrieved 6 January 2007...

.

Walter De Maria

• "Time/Timeless/No Time," 2004 - granite, mahogany, gold leaf, concrete

Claude Monet

• "Water Lilies," 1914-17 - oil on Canvas, 200×200cm
• "Water Lilies, Reflections of Weeping Willows," 1916-19 - oil on canvas, 100×200cm
• "Water-Lily Pond," 1917-19 - oil on canvas, 100×200cm
• "Water-Lily Pond," c.1915-1926 - oil on canvas, diptych, each part: 200×300cm

James Turrell

• "Afrum, Pale Blue," 1968 - projector
• "Open Field," 2000 - fluorescent light, neon tube
• "Open Sky," 2004 - LED, xenon lamp

Chichu Garden

Located between the ticket center and main museum building, the Chichu Garden is an area roughly 400m² in size that features approximately 150 types of plants and 40 kinds of trees that either appeared in Monet's works or were collected by the artist during his lifetime. As Monet was an avid gardener, his own designs as well as inspiration gleaned directly from some of his most famous paintings were used to design the garden and ponds that make up the area, which even feature some of the same water lilies that appear in his famous series

Water Lilies

Water Lilies is a series of approximately 250 oil paintings by French Impressionist Claude Monet . The paintings depict Monet's flower garden at Giverny and were the main focus of Monet's artistic production during the last thirty years of his life...

.

The rationale behind Chichu Garden is one where, through physical experience, it is believed one's understanding and appreciation of Claude Monet's work can be deepened.

External links

• official Chichu Art Museum website (English)
• Benesse Art Site Naoshima (English)
• Benesse Corporation (English)