Osaka's National Museum of Art - NMAO

The official Japanese title of the museum translates as the "National Museum of International Art". When it opened on October 15, 1977, the museum became Japan's fourth national museum. The building, designed by architect Arata Isozaki, was partially renovated after originally serving as the Expo Museum of Fine Arts at Expo'70, but unlike the other pavilions, it was originally designed to be a permanent structure. Moreover, the site was originally scheduled to serve as home to the Osaka Prefectural Museum of Contemporary Art, but due to financial difficulties and the election of a new governor, the plan was ultimately shelved. Later, the idea of building a national museum gained support, and while studying already existing national museums, the facility was approved. However, due to the aging of the building as well as growing space limitations, the museum was temporarily closed in January 2004. The old museum was demolished and turned into a car park, while the exhibits were transferred to its more central, current location in Nakanoshima, which opened in November 2004. The present museum was designed by Argentinian-American architect César Pelli — who designed the 2nd expansion of the MoMA in New York in 1977, a 56-storey residential tower. Most of the museum facilities are located underground, next to the Osaka Science Museum. Pelli suggested that the externally visible design structure represents waving reeds in the wind. The original objective of the museum was "to collect, store, and publicly display the artworks and resources, and conduct the related research and other projects needed to elucidate the relationship between developments in Japanese art and art from the rest of the world." However, most of the artwork in the collection is from the post-war era. Since it started, the museum collects contemporary works, which helped determine his current direction, acting more as a Contemporary Art Museum. As of March 2011, The National Museum of Art, Osaka, boasted a total of 6,109 works. Over half of the entire collection consists of about 3,000 prints. | Photos by Martin Grossmann, September 2019 | URL: http://www.nmao.go.jp/en/