Tokyo Gallery+BTAP 60th Anniversary Exhibition.

“Micro Salon” was a title of an exhibition at Tokyo Gallery in December 1961. The exhibition showcased abundant small-scale works by 21 artists on the gallery‟s walls. In the era where bank transfers and credit card payments were still yet to be invented, guests bring their leftover budget from their annual spend to visit the gallery in search of new artworks to be displayed during New Year.

As the gallery reaches its 60th anniversary, the number “60” is added to the title of the exhibition. Takashi Yamamoto passed away in the year 1988 after opening Tokyo Gallery for over half a century. Many of the artists who exhibited their works in “Micro Salon” and the guests who purchased those works have also passed away as well. Nonetheless, those exhibited works are brought out again to recent auctions and lent to be exhibited in museums from private collections, revisiting images of our past. These works continued to pleasure us no matter how long time has passed by.

This year, with corroborative support from many artists, Tokyo Gallery+BTAP is reviving the “Micro Salon” exhibition for the first time in 50 years. In the era of Japanese modern art‟s early birth and the rise of new collectors in the 1960s, “Micro Salon” was the meeting place for young artists and collectors. In contrast, in our contemporary age at the end of the first decade of the 21st century where the Art Bubble period is in its final stage, new generation of artists experiment their ways toward their future development. With the base of a 60th anniversary exhibition, we aspire to create this event into a new meeting space for artists and collectors.

Aside from small-scale works specifically produced by each artists, this exhibition will be showcasing photographic documentation of the exhibition in 1961 as well as its past catalogs. In addition, the gallery is also publishing “Tokyo Gallery+BTAP 60th Anniversary Catalog,” an all-inclusive record of the gallery‟s past exhibitions, corresponding to the opening of this exhibition.

We would like to use this opportunity to share the stories of Tokyo Gallery in both the past and the present to the wider public.

【Exhibiting Artists】
Taku Aramasa, Nobuo Sekine, Kishio Suga, Susumu Koshimizu, Hirotake Kurokawa, Takeshi Hayashi, Mitsukuni Takimoto, Shiro Matsui, Showichi Kaneda, Gyoko Yoshida, Takuya Sasaki, Chiharu Nishizawa, Hiroyuki Matsuura, Shinji Ohmaki, Jun Azumatei, Man Furuya, Riichi Yamaguchi, Yohei Watanabe, Danshaku Miyazawa, Shigeki Yoshida, Issei Kurihara, Hiroto Kitagawa, Miki Taira, Hisashi Kondo, Yoshito Takahashi, Shozo Araki, Nozomi Kobayashi, Ayaka Yamada, Go Yayanagi, Shinjiro Okamoto, Lee Ufan, Park Seobo, Kim Changyoung, Koh Myungkeun, Cai Guoqiang, Yuan Shun, Song Dong, Wang Shuye, Oscar Oiwa, Isao Sugiyama

【Tokyo Gallery Timeline】
1950 Takashi Yamamoto jointly establishes Tokyo Gallery with Kusuo Shimizu.
Yamamoto opens the office of Tokyo Gallery at 6-4 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo.
1951 Tokyo Gallery is moved to Mitsuki Building, 7-5 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo through the mediation of Sotaro Yasui.
The first exhibition of Tokyo Gallery, the Seiji Chokai Solo Exhibition is held.
1956 Kusuo Shimizu establishes Minami Gallery in Nihombashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo.
1958 Takashi Yamamoto makes his fourth survey trip to Europe and the US. Shuzo Takiguchi, an art critic, introduces Takashi Yamamoto to Yoshishige Saito. Solo exhibitions of domestic abstract painters including Saito are held at Tokyo Gallery.
1961 Kohei Sugiura takes charge of designing Tokyo Gallery catalogs and invitation cards which he overseas until 2000.
1962 Takashi Yamamoto makes Tokyo Gallery into a corporation and takes the position of President.
1963 Tokyo Gallery is moved to 8-6-18 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo.
1964 The Museum of Contemporary Art, Nagaoka opens. Since then Tokyo Gallery takes charge of organizing and operating the Prize of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Nagaoka.
1972 Tokyo Gallery begins holding the “Special Exhibition Asia Series” to explore the ethnic roots of Japanese art.
1984・85 The “Human Documents „84/ ‟85” exhibition is held.
1988 Takashi Yamamoto passes away on June 9 at the age of 68.
1989 The “Chinese Contemporary Art Now” exhibition is held with the assistance of artists living in Shanghai.
2002 Tokyo Gallery opens Beijing-Tokyo Art Projects (BTAP) in the Dashanzi 798 Art District in Beijing.
2005 Tokyo Gallery is moved to its current address of 8-10-5 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo.
2010 “micro-salon 60” is commemoration of Tokyo Gallery‟s 60th anniversary.

* The text provided by TOKYO GALLERY + BTAP | TOKYO.

Opened dates: December 4 - 25, 2010