Home / Events / Anti-Action: Artist Women’s Challenges and Responses in Postwar Japan

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Anti-Action: Artist Women’s Challenges and Responses in Postwar Japan

Toyota Municipal Museum of Art

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Artists

Keiko Akaana, Saori (Madokoro) Akutagawa, Kazuko Enomoto, Kinuko Emi, Yayoi Kusama, Fujiko Shiraga, Minami Tada, Atsuko Tanaka, Tazuko Tanaka, Mitsuko Tabe, Hideko Fukushima, Aiko Miyawaki, Mami Mori, Tsuruko Yamazaki

For a short period after World War II in the 1950s and ’60s, women artists in Japan garnered a great deal of attention for their avant-garde works. These efforts were boosted by the Art Informel (“unformed art”) movement, which had arrived by way of France, and the accompanying critical discourse. However, the women painters were subsequently excluded from discussion due to the feeling that Art Informel was little more than a passing fancy, and the advent of the new formal concept of action painting from America. Male critics reacted to the boldness and power of the masculine and intimate concept of action, causing a shift back toward conventional gender order.

This exhibition is based on the “anti-action” perspectives of Izumi Nakajima, who has devoted herself to reinterpreting art history from the viewpoint of gender studies. Here, we introduce these women artists, who had unnecessarily been mystified and alienated from the historical narrative, by tracing the trajectory of their antagonistic attitude and their unique responses and challenges.

Schedule

Oct 4 (Sat) 2025-Nov 30 (Sun) 2025