Retrospective exhibitions
回顧展
A retrospective brings together work and records from across an artist's career so that a body of work can be seen in sequence and from more than one angle.
01About
A retrospective can place early and later works, different media, sketches, photographs or other records in relation to one another. The Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum describes its Tada Minami exhibition as a large-scale retrospective that surveys about seventy years of work through paintings, sculptures, light works, architectural parts, photographs and sketches. The National Museum of Western Art describes its Turner exhibition as a retrospective arranged by themes and a loose chronology, with contemporary works placed beside Turner's. This makes comparison more useful than hunting for a single representative piece. When you visit one, move back and forth between periods and ask what each change of material or setting does to your view.
02In the gallery
Start with one early and one later work, then compare their material, scale, pace and surroundings.
03Notes
Compare changes across periods, materials and ways of working.
What has changed, and what has stayed with the artist?