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Berlin (dpa) - An exhibition on the connections between 20th century German and Japanese art that drew a third of a million people to the Mori Tower in Tokyo earlier this year was to open for the second leg of its run on Wednesday in Berlin.
The Berlin venue for "Berlin-Tokyo/Tokyo-Berlin" is a leading modern art museum, the New National Gallery completed in 1968.
The Gallery and the Mori Art Museum of Tokyo jointly mounted the show of 500 artworks that each in some way marks a bond between the two capitals in the period from 1900 to the present. The show includes paintings, prints, sculpture, photography and video art.
Arranged in 24 sections, it suggests how German and Japanese artists influenced one another.
As examples of German artists who gained inspiration from Japan, the exhibition shows works by Emil Nolde, Max Slevogt, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Franz Marc, Max Pechstein, George Grosz, Walter Gropius, Bruno Taut, Joseph Beuys and Candida Hoefer.
A Japanese architect, Toyo Ito, remodelled the upper storey of the museum as a huge "sculpture" that visitors walk inside as they contemplate contemporary artists' views of metropolitan life in the two cities.
"The mutual fascination continues to this day," commented the director-general of the State Museums, Peter-Klaus Schuster, on Tuesday.
The steel-and-glass museum building is famed as the principal post-War work on German soil of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who was himself influenced by classical Japanese architecture.
Among German influences on Japan was the 1914 exhibition in Tokyo of prints by the Sturm group of painters. The Mavo group led by Tomoyoshi Murayama in Tokyo was inspired by Berlin's Dada movement.
In Tokyo, the show on the 53rd storey of the Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills was seen by 340,000 people before it closed early last month. It was a feature of Germany Year in Japan 2005/2006. The Berlin run is until October 3.
Internet: www.smb.museum/berlin-tokyo
Copyright 2006 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
