In recent decades, appreciating art exhibitions has ceased to be a luxury and remote form of entertainment for the general public. Art museums have also become arenas for curators to showcase their abundant ideas and research findings. Even with the same artworks, differences in exhibition venues, lighting, display, or exhibition themes can bring novel feelings or stimuli to viewers.
In this era where the trend of visiting exhibitions is increasingly prevalent, anyone who has seen an exhibition by a famous artist in a Japanese museum has likely experienced crowds so large that it's difficult to enjoy the art at leisure. Cases where exhibitions attract over 500,000 visitors in just a few months are common, which at first glance suggests a nation of art lovers. However, a closer look at the total annual visitor numbers for Japanese museums reveals they are significantly lower compared to world-class museums like the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the British Museum in London, which often exceed five million visitors.
This is because most exhibitions in Japan are "special exhibitions" organized by newspaper companies that rent space from museums, rather than the "permanent exhibitions" in Europe and America that primarily attract visitors with their collections. This media-led situation highlights the unique characteristics of Japanese museum exhibitions, which often involve huge costs to borrow artworks and make it difficult for Japanese museum curators to fully utilize their expertise. Over-reliance on "X Museum Exhibition" to attract crowds and secure revenue also easily sacrifices the quality of the visitor experience and the cultivation of domestic talent due to the bustling crowds.
The author has served as an exhibition planner, responsible for borrowing artworks from foreign museums or promoting Japanese paintings for exhibition abroad, and has also worked as an art journalist. Therefore, in addition to exploring the nature of museums and the responsibilities of curators, the author can introduce the characteristics of Japanese art exhibitions and their "unhealthy realities" from multiple perspectives. This includes differences in operation compared to European and American museums, the costs behind ticket prices, and the interests of related parties. The author also discusses the development and changes of modern art festivals such as biennials and triennials, and recommends museums worth visiting. By unveiling the behind-the-scenes aspects of exhibitions, the author hopes to provide art lovers with a more macroscopic understanding of the industry and foster an environment with more excellent museums and exhibitions.
