Modern Art

REFLECTIONS ON TADAO ANDO, JAPAN'S MONUMENTAL ARCHITECT

You can’t travel in Japan long without coming across at least one of Tadao Ando’s buildings. Usually concrete, with a minimalist yet dramatic design, they serve as a complement to the surrounding environment rather than as a distraction. In some respects, Tadao Ando’s works are a modern interpretation of traditional Japanese aesthetics, with a simple beauty that speaks directly to the heart, rather than cluttering the brain with way too much superfluous detail.

Ando, who was born in Osaka in 1941, has designed more than 120 buildings in Japan during his 30-some year career, from the Junichi Watanabe Memorial Hall in Sapporo (1998) to new Shibuya Station in Tokyo (2008), but I first heard of Tadao Ando with the opening of the Suntory Museum in Osaka, in 1994. I was in awe as I toured its light and airy galleries, which stage changing exhibitions against a dramatic background of the sea beyond their glass walls.

Through the years I’ve seen some of his other works as well, like the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art in Kobe (2002) and the upscale Omotesando Hills (2006), a shopping and dining destination in Tokyo. But it was in Naoshima, an island in the Seto Inland Sea known for its cutting-edge art that I grew to appreciate the full extent of his talents. Ando has designed two museums there: the Chichu Art Museum and the Benesse House, both concrete structures that utilize natural lighting and take full advantage of Naoshima’s natural beauty. Both museums are exceptional vehicles for the works of art they carry, from Monet to Warhol, and it’s hard to imagine Naoshima’s art scene without Ando’s influence.

Today Tadao Ando reigns as one of Japan’s most famous architects and is gaining an international reputation as well. His works are there to see not only in Japan but around the world: in the United States there's Morimoto, a restaurant in New York City’s Chelsea Market; the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts in St. Louis; and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, among others.

What I find fascinating about Tadao Ando is that he is self-taught, with no formal training. How different his life would have been, not to mention Japan’s architectural scene, if he had continued on the path he followed for a short time as a young man—as a boxer. Some things, I guess, are just meant to be.