The Pola Museum of Art 10th Anniversary Exhibition

Part I : Jul.14 (Sat), 2012 – Oct.2 (Tue), 2012

Part II : Oct.5 (Fri), 2012 – Feb.26 (Tue), 2013

Part III : Mar.1 (Fri), 2013 – Jul.7 (Sun), 2013

Suzuki Tsuneshi (1930 – 2000), son of the founder of Pola Orbis Holdings, Inc., assembled the works in the Pola Museum of Art collection over a period of 40 years. In all, there are around 9500 works, representing a range of genres, including modern European painting, modern Japanese Western-style painting, contemporary nihonga (Japanese-style painting), prints, sculpture, Oriental ceramics, modern and contemporary Japanese ceramics, glasswork, and cosmetic utensils. The Pola Museum of Art, located in the verdant Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park in Kanagawa Prefecture, opened on September 6, 2002. The Museum’s concept is coexistence of art and nature, and its purpose is the storage, study, and exhibition of the collection’s artworks.

In accordance with Suzuki Tsuneshi’s corporate philosophy of contributing to the elevation of culture and the prosperity of a peaceful society through corporate activities centered on health and beauty, The Pola Research Institute of Beauty and Culture, researching the culture of cosmetics, was established in 1976 and, to mark the company’s 50th anniversary, and The Pola Foundation for the Promotion of Traditional Japanese Culture was established in 1979 to aid in the recording, preservation, and dissemination of information on intangible cultural properties. In 1996, on the occasion of Pola’s 70th anniversary, The Pola Art Foundation was established and charged with installing and operating the Pola Museum of Art, and with providing grants for young artists to study abroad, and subsidies for projects in the art field.

The Pola Museum of Art collection, recognized as the largest, in both diversity and quality, by a Japanese post-war private collector, was created almost entirely by Suzuki Tsuneshi, a reserved person who talked little about the artworks or his collecting activities. Since the Museum’s opening, we have been interacting with the collection and making efforts to understand the artistic sense of this unassuming man. By analyzing works that strongly relate to Suzuki as an individual and as a public figure, this 10th anniversary exhibition explored how Suzuki built up the collection. Further, the exhibition introduced cultural activities Suzuki Tsuneshi engaged in.

The entire museum space was dedicated to the exhibition presented in 12 thematic sections. During the exhibition period, three alternating special exhibitions held to feature Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet and Sugiyama Yasushi, three major artists strongly represented in the collection.