Azabudai Hills Gallery — Attraction in Tokyo

It's summer and you know what that means: HEAT🔥. I rolled up on the Hibiya line and took exit #2 from __ station, and this was my first mistake.

Stay underground!

Don't walk uphill past the heavily guarded Russian embassy, enter the enclave that is Azubudai Hills, be at the totally wrong end in the totally wrong building, go down escalators and outside to sweat, pass this lumpy white earwax tower, head back towards the metro station, see the entrance across the street, don't find a crosswalk, walk down down down to the stoplight, cross, and walk back up up up to the flipping door.

...AND THEN

I finally got inside and let's see, oh cool, the gallery is on floor #MB. Let me just check the guide map (see photo). Huh, there is no number MB, probably because those are letters. I guess it means uhhhh mezzanine basement?? Who knows. Maybe it's Japanese. Mayonnaise bacon. Mega bottom. So more escalators!

The little recessed ticket counter place was oddly placed, and there's at least 1 airport rope to kind of direct people; I entered at the wrong end so whatever. Price was ¥1500, but if you follow this building's Instagram account you get a ¥300 discount! I did this. You're welcome building.

No bags! And I mean noooooo bags! If you bring in bags or chew gum, you die. If you don't have ¥100 for a locker then the staff will furrow their brows and look concerned about it. And then you die.

But before that you have to read another sheet of rules that is almost identical to the one you just read about chewing gum and not being drunk, but this one added a bit about not blowing on the artwork. Fine. I left my gas powered turbine at home.

I'm finally in! Aw yeahhh mobiles! Sculpture! Paintings! Oh, Sandy Calder, you rascal.

Actually, are these 47 gallery staff and 9 security guards going to keep staring at me the whole time? The answer, in Japanese, is "hai / yes." I was lightly reprimanded for trying to walk around one of the sculptures, because it's in the third dimension, but I guess you can't walk some places, possibly due to snakes or sand traps etc.

Anyway, the gallery is just one big room, so you do a circuit and leave through the same entrance. Pictures are encouraged (cell phone only), but it's really dim in here and I'm not Ansel Adams, so my shots are pretty grain-tastic. Grainy granular.

IN CONCLUSION: what is even happening in here, and why are there 97 staff members, and why is it such a pain to get to? Unprecedented and unimaginable though they may be, these are the questions of our time (2024 June).

I give Alexander Calder one million stars though. He's great. The Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC has a nice collection of a lot of his sculpted animals, if you're ever in that neck of the woods. I only spent maybe 20ish minutes in the gallery here and slunk back down the escalator to try and find a more direct route to the Hibiya line. I ain't baking my brain outside again.

ALEXANDER CALDERR 🪨🪽. You go. Thanks...

Went to see the Calder exhibit— fantastic, well curated show; a nice, compact venue that packs a lot of content and wonderful Calder pieces in a small venue that makes it easy to digest (no museum fatigue here!) Agree with others that getting here can be a bit confusing. Just know that there is no grand entrance. It’s essentially a gallery space that’s one floor below ground level, so you need to find the correct building and then take an escalator down just like the thousand other retail/restaurant buildings in Tokyo, but this is a cool, quiet place more like an office building. Yes, the staff places a lot of emphasis on the rules, and then there are many staff in the gallery rooms watching your every move. This is instead of having barriers between you and the art, so I’m some ways it’s better but it can be intimidating being watched. Many of these pieces are very valuable, so it’s a pleasure to have such an intimate, up-close look at them. The watchful eyes on you is the price you pay for the privilege (that, and the 1,500 yen fee that seems a bit too high but whatever). Highly recommended bite-sized portion of excellent modern art that takes no more than...

We came to this gallery to see the artwork by Calder. It was a very interesting display of work. There are many sculptures and paintings by Calder. There is also a little theatre showing Calder and his artwork.

The gallery is very nice and spacious. We came on a weekday so it wasn’t very crowded and pleasantly allowed us to view all the art pieces at a leisurely pace.

Deducted one star because the signs and descriptions in the gallery are confusing. Instead of having titles and descriptions next to the artwork, they are lumped together and located off to the side. That made it difficult to discern which title refers to which art piece.

Overall, this gallery is well worth a visit. It is located in a newly developed complex in the affluent Azabudai neighborhood with lots of underground shops and restaurants to...