While The Museum of Modern Art may be the authority on European modernism, this fall it is devoting a significant amount of floor space to developments in Tokyo between the years 1955 and 1970, a period when a devastated and demoralized Japan rebuilt itself after World War II and, in the process, cultivated progressive painting, sculpture, photography, drawing and graphic design. Featuring three-hundred works by more than sixty artists, this is an epic, sweeping show that—aside from Yoko Ono, the most recognizable figure from the bunch—will cast light on many overlooked figures from the time, including the collaborative Hi Red Center, artists Nakamura Hiroshi and Shiomi Mieko, graphic designer Yokoo Tadanori and architect Tange Kenzo. With assistance from MoMA’s film and video department, “Tokyo 1955-1970” will also be accompanied by a forty-film retrospective of the independent film company Art Theatre Guild, which was instrumental in producing and disseminating avant-garde works in Japan from the 1960s to the 1980s. Work from filmmakers ranging such as Teshigahara Hiroshi to Wakamatsu Koji will screen concurrently with the exhibition. “Tokyo 1955-1970” should be a no-expense-spared, not-to-be-missed landmark event. (David Everitt Howe)

Until February 25, 2013