The Art Newspaper reported on September 29 2026 that the Pola Museum of Art in Hakone has placed its extensive Monet holdings in dialogue with recent acquisitions and loans from more than 20 additional artists in the exhibition titled The New Vision: Monet and the Contemporary Gaze. The show extends across indoor galleries as well as the atrium lobby and outdoor woodland areas where site-specific installations invite fresh perspectives on the Impressionist’s legacy. A museum spokesperson told the publication that the curatorial approach avoided a strictly chronological display of the Monets in favor of inviting contemporary practitioners to offer new viewpoints on the works from a 21st-century standpoint.
The museum’s 19 Monets represent the largest collection of the French painter in Asia and span nearly four decades of his output from the 1870s to 1908 according to The Art Newspaper. Works on view trace Monet’s evolution through Seine river scenes Saint-Lazare Station views Normandy coastlines the Haystacks and Rouen Cathedral series London and Venice paintings and culminate in The Water-Lily Pond from 1899 plus late-period Water Lilies canvases. This breadth allows the exhibition to examine recurring themes of light perception and landscape that resonate with the included contemporary pieces.
Artists featured alongside the Monets include Felix Gonzalez-Torres Wolfgang Tillmans Roni Horn Pierre Huyghe Fujiko Nakaya and Noémie Goudal as well as Lucas Arruda Kapwani Kiwanga and Daniel Steegmann Mangrané among others The Art Newspaper stated. Nakaya’s fog sculpture installation for instance activates the museum’s surrounding forest paths to evoke the misty atmosphere of Monet’s Giverny garden. Several of the contemporary works were created specifically for the exhibition while others mark their first presentation in a Japanese museum setting the report added.
The Pola Museum of Art opened in 2002 on the basis of a collection assembled over 40 years by Tsuneshi Suzuki the second-generation leader of the Pola cosmetics company who began acquiring art in 1958 according to the museum’s official history. Suzuki initially focused on Japanese yoga paintings and French works before shifting emphasis to Impressionist and 20th-century Western masters with a particular strength in Monet. The Pola Art Foundation which operates the institution has continued to build on that foundation while supporting research young artists and international cultural exchange.
Since around 2015 the museum has actively acquired contemporary works becoming one of Japan’s more prominent institutional buyers in that field at a time when many peers scaled back The Art Newspaper noted. Recent purchases include pieces by Gerhard Richter Gonzalez-Torres and Tillmans some of which now appear in the Monet exhibition to illustrate the collection’s expanded scope. This evolution aligns with Japan’s longstanding engagement with Impressionism which dates to the Meiji era when Western art was embraced as part of modernization efforts a senior art adviser at the Chain Museum observed in a related assessment.
The exhibition is organised around five thematic sections addressing concepts of the camera time the river life and the garden according to a Pola Museum of Art press release. It forms part of a broader 25th-anniversary programme that also includes a collection cinema series and other displays running concurrently through April 2027. Additional public programming has featured artist talks and lectures exploring intersections between Monet and contemporary practices such as a September session on the connections with Gonzalez-Torres.
