Underground museum for Osaka

Art in America, Feb, 2005 by David Ebony

Osaka Japan's second largest city, recently inaugurated its new National Museum of Art designed by Cesar Pelli & Associates. The museum is located on Nakano Island in the heart of the downtown financial and cultural district. Created by an architecture firm best known for its skyscrapers, the $133-million, 145,000-square-foot museum is situated underground, on three levels. As a kind of sculptural flourish, a soaring, winglike structure of open-form spires made of tubular titanium-coated steel rises some 170 feet above ground. The towering poles are meant to evoke bamboo stalks swaying in the breeze. The lower portion of the structure, covered in glass plate, serves as an entranceway and allows natural light to flood the lower-level atrium and several large galleries. Beyond 45,000 square feet of exhibition space for the permanent collection and temporary shows, the building features an auditorium, a cafe, a museum shop, a study center, offices and storage facilities.

According to Fred W. Clarke, principal designer in charge of the project, the museum presented an extraordinary challenge. Surrounded by rivers, the allotted area consists of water-infused soil with no bedrock. The earthquake-resistant structure, which took five years to complete, required 10-foot-thick walls of waterproof concrete descending some 64 feet below sea level. The unusual building method resulted in cost-efficient temperature and humidity controls.

Relocating from its previous suburban venue, the museum, which opened in 1977, contains over 5,000 works by Japanese and foreign artists. With the exception of pieces by Cezanne, Picasso, Kandinsky, Ernst, Kuniyoshi and a few others, the holdings consist primarily of postwar art. The core of the collection is a group of 800 contemporary works donated in 1978 by Japanese businessman and collector Kaichi Ohashi. Currently on view are "Treasures from Ancient China," through Mar. 27, and a show of works by the young photographer Yuki Onodera [Feb. 5-Apr. 17].