Kitakyushu City Art Museum

About

The exterior walls, drawing lines that seem to flow like a pavilion roof, blend with the landscape as though bowing slightly atop the hill. Stepping inside the building, natural light descending from the ceiling flows along with visitors' footsteps like running water. Auguste Renoir's Woman with a Straw Hat seems to move subtly along the boundary of light, while Basquiat's Firemen appears to cut through the space with an intense color that clings to the wall. Katsushika Hokusai's The Great Wave off Kanagawa makes it feel as though this museum has become not a window facing the sea, but a bridge toward time itself. At night, the light obscured by the sculptures in the outdoor park seems to seep into the paintings.