The Myth Of Tomorrow – Taro Okamoto

Sometimes the thing about art in public places is that you just don’t think about it. Even though art has long since been stripped of it’s moral-building and society-building status public officials still feel it necessary to enrichen our public spaces with what they consider to be worthwhile art. Here’s one I have managed to miss for a very long time indeed: Taro Okamoto’s “The Myth of Tomorrow” which has been restored and is now hanging in Shibuya’s Mark City just between the JR and the Inoskashira line’s Shibuya Station.

The story behind the painting is interesting as it apparently lay abandoned in a yard somewhere in Mexico for 30 years before being found. The artist himself (naturally) lobbied for it being returned to Japan and given a more fitting exhibition. It supposedly weighs 14 tons and three cities wrestled for control of the painting before it was handed over to Tokyo. I can’t think of many other public spaces in Japan that could really fit something of this size! Next time you’re in Shibuya, it could be worthwhile to go and check it out!

Update [2011/06/13]: Thank you all for your kind and informed comments! Here’s a few facts to answer some of the questions in the comments section:

Okamoto painted this five panel mural (30m x 5.5m) in Mexico City in 1969 as a commision from a hotel entrepeneur. The hotel had financial trouble from the start and the painting went missing. The missing artwork lay exposed in a construction materials yard until 2003 (sources vary on the year) when it was found by the late Okamoto’s wife. The painting depicts the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 and shows the affected peoples’s will and spirit of survival. Acrylic paint on asbestos panels (and one part on concrete, hence the amazing weight). It is widely considered to be his second most accomplished work, or possibly as accomplished as the Osaka monument Taiyonoto.