"7 Sunflowers" Ceremony and Unveiling Ceremony

On March 21, 2018, Otsuka Museum of Art (Director Ichiro Otsuka, Naruto City, Tokushima Prefecture) celebrated its 20th anniversary. As part of its commemorative project, the museum has reproduced all 7 of Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" vases in full size on ceramic panels and is displaying them to the public in a newly built exhibition room.

On Tuesday, March 20th, the day before the release, a ceremony and unveiling was held, attended by relevant parties from Japan and abroad, including the libraries that own "Himawari."

■State (from the left) of the unveiling ceremony

Satomi Fukushima (acting Saneatsu Mushanokouji Memorial secretary general)

Ryuta Nakajima (Seiji Togou memory SOMPO JAPAN Japan national policy for the rise of Asia Museum director)  

Ferris Fischer (Philadelphia Museum of Art seat of honor curator [Orient art])

Christian Gertinger (representative from State of Federal Republic of Germany Bayern stationing in Japan representative district)

Julie Molloy (London National Gallery Company's president)

Ricardo van Damme (President of Van Gogh Museum Enterprises)

Martin Bailey (Van Gogh specialist)

Hanako Yabuki (Great-granddaughter of Yata Yamamoto, who purchased the elusive "Sunflower")

Nobuyuki Senzoku (Otsuka Museum of Art picture arts and sciences committee member [modern times], the display supervision of Seijo University's emeritus professor ※ this time)

Ichiro Otsuka (Otsuka Museum of Art director)

■From Otsuka Museum of Art director Ichiro Otsuka

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Otsuka Museum of Art, all 7 of Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" vases have been reproduced in full size on ceramic panels and will be exhibited permanently in a newly built exhibition room.

Since the museum first opened, it has exhibited "Sunflowers" from the Van Gogh Museum collection, and in October 2014, it added a replica of the elusive "Sunflowers" that had been in Ashiya City, Hyogo Prefecture, and which had been destroyed during the Great Hanshin Air Raid. With this additional exhibit as a turning point, it has become the museum's new dream and goal to exhibit all 7 of the "Sunflowers" works at once, and in preparation for the 20th anniversary of the museum's opening, it has taken on the challenge of a project to exhibit five more works.

This exhibition is a groundbreaking attempt that is unprecedented anywhere in the world, and we believe that the reproductions on ceramic panels, which will not deteriorate or fade over the course of a thousand or 2,000 years, will contribute to the future recording, preservation, and utilization of cultural assets.

■Supervision Nobuyuki Chiashi

(Otsuka Museum of Art picture arts and sciences committee [modern times], Seijo University's emeritus professor) ※This display supervision

The work "Sunflowers" was also a special piece for Van Gogh, and according to a letter he wrote, "I wanted to decorate my studio in Arles with the sunflowers I had painted, and I also wanted to welcome my friend Gauguin there."

Unfortunately, he passed away before he could achieve his dream of creating a sunflower room or museum that would bring all the sunflowers together in one place.

More than 1 century later, Van Gogh's dream has come true in Japan. Van Gogh loved Japan so much that if he were alive today, I think he would be happier than anyone else.

The number of flowers depicted in the 7 "Sunflowers" varies slightly depending on the piece, but if we assume that each 1 piece has 15 flowers, then in the 5 pieces there are a total of 75 sunflowers. If we add the mythical "Sunflower" that was in Ashiya and the piece in a private collection, this comes to over 80 sunflowers gathered together in a magnificent display of bloom, which is very pleasing to us.

President of Van Gogh Museum Enterprises Ricardo van Damme

This unprecedented attempt to exhibit Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" in one room is a pinnacle experience for art lovers. No art museum would dare lend out the delicate and precious "Sunflowers" works scattered around the world. In this situation, no one has been able to exhibit 7 "Sunflowers" in one place for over a century, so the Otsuka Museum of Art, which has realized this unique exhibition, is special.

As you know, Gogh was interested in Japan and art of Japan and collected ukiyoe prints. He was attracted in particular by the composition of the ukiyoe print, the rich coloration, subject and a warm viewpoint to nature. And we Van Gogh Museum has been building Japan and the close relations in the same way as Gogh for many years, too.

We hope that everyone who comes to Tokushima will enjoy our new exhibition, "7 Sunflowers," and we would like to celebrate our 20th anniversary.

■Van Gogh specialist Martin Bailey

Van Gogh created the "Sunflowers" series to decorate Gauguin's room in the "Yellow House" in Arles. He put 3 sunflowers in a vase, then 6, then 14, then 15, and amazingly, in less than 1 week he completed 4 "Sunflowers" .

When I was writing my book, "The Sunflowers are Mine," I learned that there was a "Sunflower" piece in Japan 1 century ago. It was purchased by a businessman from Ashiya, Yamamoto Koyata, but was destroyed in the war in 1945. I was surprised to see that the sunflower I saw in the art book at the Mushanokoji Saneatsu Memorial Museum was surrounded by an orange frame, and I soon discovered from Van Gogh's letter that he had intended to display the painting in an orange wooden frame. This sunflower can be seen here at the Otsuka Museum of Art. Van Gogh later painted 3 more sunflowers, one of which is at the Togo Seiji Memorial Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Museum of Art.

Of the 7 "Sunflowers," 1 has been lost, and the others are scattered across Europe, America, and Japan, making it difficult to see them all together. When you step into this gallery, you are surrounded by "Sunflowers." We hope that visitors can imagine that they are in the "Yellow House."