Emulation and admiration, two collections compared

The exhibition, a collaboration between the San Diego Museum of Art and the National Museum of Western Art, brings together 88 works to explore the evolution of Western art from the Renaissance to the 19th century through thematic comparisons. The San Diego Museum of Art, with a collection of European masterpieces built primarily in the 1930s, is notable for its Spanish Renaissance and Baroque paintings. The National Museum of Western Art, founded in 1959 on the basis of the collection of Kojiro Matsukata, has systematically enriched its collection with Impressionist and Old Master works. The exhibition is divided into 36 subthemes, placing works in dialogue to offer an overview of the history of Western art. It also highlights the two museums' shared interest in collecting European art, despite being located in non-European countries. Five paintings from the San Diego Museum of Art will be exhibited in the permanent galleries of the Japanese museum, expanding the dialogue between the collections. The 49 works from San Diego will be presented for the first time in Japan.