20 Years After His Death: Ida Shoichi Exhibition @ Toyota Municipal Museum of Art
Toyota Municipal Museum of Art presents a retrospective of Ida Shoichi, showcasing about 480 works and the complete 401-piece series "Tantra" from its collection.Summary
Toyota Municipal Museum of Art is holding the exhibition "20 Years After His Death: Ida Shoichi Exhibition" from October 24, 2026, to January 24, 2027. Marking the 20th anniversary of the death of Ida Shoichi (1941-2006, born in Kyoto), who gained attention as a printmaker from the 1960s and later expanded into oil painting, watercolor, three-dimensional work, and installation, the exhibition revisits his career through approximately 480 works from the museum's collection, spanning his early to late periods. Ida graduated from the Graduate School of Kyoto City University of Arts in 1965 and studied in Paris on a scholarship in 1968, where he held solo exhibitions in Paris and New York. In the 1960s, he attracted attention for prints with distinctive forms and vivid colors, experimented with printing images on thin paper and gauze in multiple layers, and by the mid-1970s arrived at printing on both sides of the paper. His concept "Surface is the Between"—the surface as the meeting place of the printing plate and paper, or vertical force and horizontal plane—expanded into a wide range of subsequent works. The exhibition presents works in various media, including prints, oil paintings, watercolors, paper works, ceramics, black pottery, bronze, and cloth, including previously unexhibited pieces, all from the museum's collection dating from 1966 to 2006. In addition, the museum will display all 401 pieces of the "Tantra" series from its collection for the first time. "Tantra" is a mixed-media series that Ida continued like a diary from 1962, when he was a student, until his death in 2006, as an act of confirming his changing self. On identical supports (32.2×21.2 cm) depicting rectangles and circles, he used a diverse range of materials including watercolor, gouache, lithography, as well as bones, stones, seeds, cotton, tears, and smoke. Related events include a commemorative talk "Speaking of Memories of the Artist" (October 24, 2026), gallery talks by the curators (November 14, December 5, January 9, 2027), and a commemorative lecture "Reading Ida Shoichi's 'Tantra': Material, Technique, Change" (November 28). Concurrently, "Hasegawa Shigeru: Pain Tengu" will be held in galleries 1–5, with a set ticket available for both exhibitions.
(Source：ART iT)