Love Art? Love Tokyo? Art Space Tokyo is a new handy coffee table book which you will upgrade to being a handbag necessity.
First Impressions
The first thing that you notice is that the book is that it is stylish. Grey with black and red type and an abstract design, the cover screams urban sophistication. But this is no vacuous model; the (just under) A5 size book is small enough to be portable. Containing comprehensive maps to both the main and art hot spots of Tokyo, it is also packed with interviews and essays giving the seasoned art lover and the enthusiastic amateur a chance to learn more about art in Tokyo.
Japanese Arts infrastructure
Notorious for their lack of arts infrastructure, the Japanese art galleries are an eclectic mix of traditional spaces as well as those seeking to push forward and promote the next generation of contemporary artists. Other independent space and think tanks such as the Wondersite project offer artist-in-residence programs and spaces.
Art and Sociology
Longer serving galleries such as Konagi in up market Ginza all contribute to an art scene, referred to by sociologist Adrian Favell as "post bubble" in a public talk on 17 September 2008 "After the Goldrush: Japan's New Post-Bubble Art and Why It Matters" at THE ECHO, ZAIM, Yokohama. What this means is that in Tokyo many local collectors preferring to buy European or Renaissance art, leaving emerging artists to make work that is outside this loop.
As a result much local talent has been wasted as artists seek to find more lucrative and liveable conditions in havens such as London and New York. This is being addressed by the creation in 2007 of Tokyo101, a contemporary Art Fair in Japan. Art Space Tokyo helps to explain the background to the current scene through interviews with key players.
Information and Overview
For serious art lovers, this book, which is one of the first to combine useful information such as address and opening hours with a simple but useable map. It will also tell you the nearest train lines, walking time from the station, web page address and neighborhood highlights.
For the unseasoned traveler, Tokyo can be hard to navigate, and even harder when it comes to locating small spaces for the first time. This book is concise and clear, two attributes which are vital considering the straggle of Tokyo's urban planning.
General and specific, formal and fun, this book will be one that you turn to again and again. Just buy a nice cover; it would be a shame to spoil the pretty ink illustrations and leave the crisp gray covered in coffee stains.
