Chichu Art Museum
Tadao Ando’s largely underground museum for Monet, James Turrell and Walter De Maria.
The Chichu Art Museum opened on 18 July 2004 in the south of Naoshima, an island in the Seto Inland Sea. It is run by the Fukutake Foundation as part of Benesse Art Site Naoshima, a long-term programme of art and architecture across several islands. Its name means 'in the earth': Tadao Ando designed the building largely underground so that it would not disturb the coastal landscape, leaving little more than geometric openings visible from above.
The museum was conceived as a place to reconsider the relationship between nature and people. Despite being below ground, its galleries are lit almost entirely by daylight, so the appearance of the works and spaces changes with the time of day and the seasons. Visitors move through a sequence of concrete corridors, courtyards and ramps, including a triangular courtyard planted with grasses and a sunken passage open to the sky.
Only three artists are represented, each in a space designed around their work. Five of Claude Monet's late Water Lilies paintings hang in a white room lit from above. James Turrell is represented by Afrum, Pale Blue, Open Field and Open Sky, and Walter De Maria by Time/Timeless/No Time, a large granite sphere set on a stepped chamber. Near the entrance, the Chichu Garden is planted with species of the kind Monet grew or painted at Giverny.
Highlights
- Building by Tadao Ando set almost entirely underground
- Five late Water Lilies paintings by Claude Monet in a daylit gallery
- James Turrell's Open Sky, with evening viewings on selected days
- Walter De Maria's Time/Timeless/No Time
- Chichu Garden, planted with species associated with Monet's Giverny
