Image: Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art
Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art is presenting 'ＮＨＫ日曜美術館 50年展', an exhibition marking the 50th anniversary of NHK’s long-running arts programme 'Sunday Museum of Art'. The show is on view from 18 July to 27 September 2026, with some works scheduled to be replaced during the run. According to the museum, the first half of the exhibition continues until 23 August, after which selected objects will change in the galleries.
The museum describes 'Sunday Museum of Art' as a pioneering presence in art broadcasting. The exhibition gathers more than 120 works and related objects that have appeared on the programme over the decades, bringing together Western and Japanese paintings, sculpture, ukiyo-e prints, folding screens, ceramics and traditional crafts. Alongside the objects themselves, the display incorporates archived footage, commentary by programme guests and material that shows artists at work in their studios.
The exhibition is structured into five chapters that trace the programme’s approach to art, from the language used to discuss works to the making of art itself. In the opening section, the museum highlights the way guests on the programme have spoken about artists and artworks, naming figures such as Kenzaburō Ōe on Francis Bacon, Takeo Funakoshi on Shunsuke Matsumoto and Iisaku Yanaihara on Alberto Giacometti. The gallery material places those remarks beside works including René Magritte’s 'レディ・メイドの花束', Tetsuya Ishida’s '飛べなくなった人' and Yūichi Takahashi’s '鮭'.
Another section focuses on the rediscovery of Japanese art, spanning ancient works through the Meiji period. The museum points to the programme’s repeated attention to Jōmon culture, Edo-period eccentric painting, Hokusai and Jakuchū, and to the changing ways Japanese art has been reassessed in the postwar period and beyond. Works listed for this section include Katsushika Hokusai’s '冨嶽三十六景 神奈川沖浪裏', Yosa Buson? No—source material instead names Yoshitoshi Tsukioka’s '義経記五條橋之図', and a section of Itō Jakuchū’s '仙人掌群鶏図', together with a Jōmon deep-bowl flame-style vessel.
Craft is treated as a continuing thread across the programme’s 50 years. The museum says the exhibition revisits the broadcast’s coverage of the Japan Traditional Crafts Exhibition and the Shōsōin exhibition, as well as the work of makers whose techniques were filmed in their studios. Names cited in the source include Gonnosuke Matsuda, Kazumi Murose, Kōka Moriguchi, Kunihiko Moriguchi, Midori Andō and Ryōsuke Shiomi. The chapter also includes Fuyuki Maehara’s '一刻タイルに兎林檎'.
A fourth section addresses art in times of disaster and crisis, shaped in part by the pandemic years. The museum says the programme developed initiatives such as its '蔵出し日本絵画・西洋絵画' series and '#アートシェア' during that period, and it pairs works by Katsuyuki? No—source material names Katsuyuki Kōzuki, Ikuo Aoyama? The verified names are Kazuo Kōzuki, Ai Mitsu, Gyoji Nomiyama and Miyako Ishiuchi, together with a high-definition video presentation of Pablo Picasso’s 'ゲルニカ'.
The final chapter turns to studio practice and the moment of making, drawing on the programme’s 'アトリエ訪問' series and studio footage from artists including Tarō Okamoto, Samiro Yunoki, Fukumi Shimura, Lee Ufan, Katsura Funakoshi, Atsushi Suwa and Hiroshi Yamaguchi. The exhibition also includes related public programmes across the run, among them children’s creative weeks, gallery talks, a workshop using onomatopoeia to decorate artworks, access-oriented viewing sessions, lectures, childcare services on selected dates and a theatre event in the entrance hall on 26 September. The museum’s official information lists admission at 1,800 yen for adults on the day, with discounts and free entry for certain groups, and notes that the exhibition closes on 27 September.
