Fukuoka Asian Art Museum

Collection policy

Permanent Collection of the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum

The Fukuoka Asian Art Museum opened on the 6th march 1999 as a museum for collecting and exhibiting Asian modern and contemporary art. There is no other collection of this quality and quantity in the world with over 1,700 works (as of March 2004) covering various aspects drawn from 21 Asian countries and regions.
In the Asia Gallery, the streams of Asian modern and contemporary art are introduced through the collection and temporary exhibitions with specific themes. The exhibits are changed from time to time in order to introduce the richness, diverse expressions and the fresh impact of Asian art.

Formation of the Collection

The basic of the collection was formed by the Fukuoka Art Museum, the parent museum of the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum. The Fukuoka Art Museum had held the Asian Art Shows every 5 years, as well as solo and group exhibitions of Asian contemporary artists, since its opening in 1979. It kept collecting works through these exhibitions for over 20 years, which has made the collection represent the art scene of each period. The Fukuoka Art Museum also paid attention to the popular, ethnic and folk art that were excluded from the ‘fine art’ in a narrow sense and it added the works that reflected the reality of the public into its collection. The Fukuoka Asian Art Museum continues to enrich its collection that was build upon the past accomplishment by pursuing the principles below.

Principles of the Collection

The Fukuoka Asian Art Museum systematically collects modern and contemporary artworks that show the originality and distinctive aesthetics of Asian art without adhering to the framework of ‘fine art’ derived from modern Western values. It sets the principle below aiming at creating a new criterion of the Asian art.

The Fukuoka Asian Art Museum collects;
(1) works that show the streams of Asian art from the modern to the contemporary period
(2) folk art, ethnic art and popular art that are important in considering Asian modern and contemporary art
(3) other traditional art and craft that are important in considering Asian modern and contemporary art

Asian modern art here means the art rose after the Asian countries and regions met Western modern art and culture, after which they began to seek for the new expressions different from the traditional art focusing on the individual creativity. The Fukuoka Asian Art Museum will keep tackling this issue of ‘modern’ in the different contexts of art in each country and region.

Asia defined here is 23 countries and regions eastwards from Pakistan, southwards from Mongolia and westwards from Indonesia. The Fukuoka Asian Art Museum is going to consider the re-definition of the boundary of Asia through exhibitions and expansion of the collection.
As to Japanese artists, the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum divides the role with the Fukuoka Art Museum. The works collected for the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum are those resulting from the encounters with other Asian countries.

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