Hiroshi Nakamura: Beyond Anachronism

“Hiroshi Nakamura: Beyond Anachronism” is a major retrospective serving up a comprehensive survey of one of Japan’s leading postwar painters. Bringing together in a single venue around 200 works by Hamamatsu native Hiroshi Nakamura (1932–2026) on loan from museums and private collectors nationwide, plus a plethora of related archival material and ephemera, the exhibition is a wide-ranging interrogation of the fruits of the artist’s seven-decade career sure to prove thought-provoking for contemporary viewers. Amid dizzying changes and increasing diversification in artistic expression, calling himself an “anachronistic” painter, through his painting Nakamura took a consistently critical stance toward society and art. The exhibition begins with Nakamura’s reportage painting of the mid-1950s, and from there goes on to present some of the most representative examples of his oeuvre, including paintings and illustrations of schoolgirls in their sailor-style uniforms, and locomotives, that reflected the zeitgeist of the 1960s and ‘70s. In addition, as well as tracing the influence of cinema and comics on Nakamura’s art, and the footprints of interactions with other artists of the same era, in particular the 1960s, it reexamines his wider exploration of painted expression from the 1970s onward. 

Hiroshi Nakamura passed away on January 8, 2026 at the age of ninety-three. 
Work on this exhibition and its catalog was underway while he was still alive, and during the preparatory stages Nakamura generously gave his time for interviews, and offered suggestions and advice on the exhibition concept and catalogue content.