Today the works of art neatly displayed in a museum’s gallery are public objects that anyone may enjoy seeing. Looking back to when those works were created, however, we realize that they were made as furnishings for a residence or painted to decorate a private room: they came about through a relationship with the person who owned them. Moreover, over time, they passed into other persons’ hands and were inherited by later generations.

This exhibition presents works by Monet, Cézanne, Fujita Tsuguharu, Kishida Ryusei, the Rimpa School, Abstract paintings—144 highly varied works from the Ishibashi Foundation Collection from many fields and many times and places—ancient and modern, East and West. Through them, we explore the situations under which works of art were created and how they were treated and passed on. Visitors will have the opportunity to imagine and experience those many contexts.