The Pola Museum of Art in Hakone will be holding its first-ever contemporary art exhibition, "Syncopation: Masters of the Century and Contemporary Art," from August 10th to December 1st. The museum will be showcasing new works created in conjunction with the exhibition, as well as installation works that can only be seen at this exhibition. Oliver Beer, Demons (detail), 2017, 16 vessels, sound equipment. Collection of Museum Vollinden (Wassenaar, Netherlands)Image courtesy of the artist and Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac © Oliver Beer Photo: Stephen White
"Syncopation: Masters of the Century and Contemporary Art" is the first special exhibition at the Pola Museum of Art to fully introduce contemporary artists. The exhibition title, "Syncopation," refers to a musical technique in which the central beat is intentionally shifted, changing the rhythm to add expression and tension to a piece.

In conjunction with this exhibition, the museum will display installations that make use of its location and new works inspired by the museum's collection, including works by Picasso and Cézanne. The diverse expressions of contemporary artists, including installations that span the entire space, sound, video works, and outdoor exhibits, shed a contemporary light on the works of past masters and bring a variety of rhythms that stir the senses. Céleste Boursier-Mougenot Photo: Kioku Keizo
Céleste Boursier-Mougenot's Clinamen v.7 is a work in which large and small white ceramic pieces float in a circular pool created in a space overlooking the greenery of Hakone from a window in the exhibition room, inducing accidental collisions. Impressionist Claude Monet focused on water from the time he decided to become a painter, and later in his life he created a pond with floating water lilies at his home and repeatedly painted its surface. Just as this is the case with water, the flow and movement of water has been entrusted with a sense of the "transition of time" in thought, literature, and art, throughout history and around the world.

Here, the ever-changing surface of water, which never remains static, is captured in the environments created by these two artists in their respective eras. Abdelkader Benchamma, Body of Ghost, 2019, Installation view: Pola Museum of Art. Photo: Kioku Keizo. Abdelkader Benchamma expresses dynamic visions of the earth in his monochrome drawings. Meanwhile, Courbet, whom Benchamma admires, explored forests in search of subjects for rocky mountains and undulating terrain that bear the marks of tectonic activity. In the works of Abdelkader Benchamma and Gustave Courbet, we can sense how artists, fascinated by the boundless vitality of nature, channel that magic into their brushes to create astonishing landscapes.

Portraits have also been tackled by artists as the origin of painting, and as a subject in the pursuit of realism. Watanabe Yutaka searched the internet for the "names" of Picasso, Cezanne, and Foujita, as well as their models, and, referencing a number of images, some real and some false, created portraits that evoke "Cubism." The results of Watanabe's exploration are realistic and humorous portraits in their current form.

Susan Phillips, "Long Gone," 2006Two-channel sound installationInstallation view: Aspen Art Museum, 2008 Photo: Susan Philipsz
Along the museum's forest promenade will be an installation by Susan Philipsz, who creates works that explore space, narrative, and sound using instruments, ambient sounds, and her own singing voice. By using songs by composer Ravel, who is also known as the musical impressionist, the installation resonates with the impressionist paintings that form the core of the museum's collection.

Enjoy the new resonances and sounds created by sessions between 12 contemporary artists active on the front lines and modern masters such as Monet and Picasso.