Description of the attraction
The National Museum of International Art in Osaka is located on Nakanoshima Island, between the Dojima and Tosabori rivers, next to the Science Museum.
The museum was opened in 1977 - after the international exhibition Expo-70 in Osaka, during which the pavilion of fine arts was open. In 2004, the museum moved to a new building, because the former premises no longer contained all the exhibits stored in it, and also became rather dilapidated. The project of the first building was developed by the Japanese architect Arata Isozaki, and the project of the new one was created by the American Cesar Pelly.
Thanks to Pelli's talent, Osaka received another unusual attraction - a museum, most of which is underground, namely, three floors out of four. Cesar Pelly is also known as the author of other world landmarks, such as the Petronas Towers in the capital of Malaysia and the John F. Kennedy Airport in New York.
It was decided to place the museum underground due to the fact that there was not much free space for building in the central part of Osaka. As a result, a sealed capsule with three-layer walls, deepened by 22 meters, was built underground. The construction of the museum was carried out for five years by Cesar Pelli's company and two Japanese companies - Tomoki Hashimoto and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
The above-ground floor of the building was designed and constructed in such a way as to supply the underground "underground" with light and air circulating in the ventilation system. The above-ground part of the museum looks like an avant-garde structure made of metal pipes. Pelly himself said that in this way he depicted a reed swaying in the wind. The total area of the museum is 13.5 thousand square meters. meters.
The collection of the National Museum numbers more than five thousand works of art, created mainly in the second half of the XX century. Among them are paintings by Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Cezanne and other masters.
