Gunma Museum of Modern Art

Arata Isozaki – Museum of Modern Art, Gunma prefecture, Japan, 1971-1974

Considered one of the greatest masterpieces of Arata Isozaki, the Museum of Modern Art, Gunma is a testament to Isozaki's architectural ideology and represents a summary of his achievements. The form is a conceptual declaration on the museum as a void and a frame.
Isozaki's use of a pure cube makes the building weightless and dematerializes architecture. No dimension has a hierarchy within the cube and therefore calm and rest appear within the structure. The equality of each element deteriorates the notion that any force acts on the cubic forms, and the aluminum squares that mask the facade hide the structure to further hint at a weightless figure.
The cubic structure of the museum creates a three-dimensional structure around each space, metaphorically isolating art from the surrounding park, just as a frame isolates an image from its context, the spatial structure of the museum detaches the interior spaces from the landscape and dedicates them only art.