Art Week Tokyo Focus 出展のお知らせ

As part of Art Week Tokyo this year, KOTARO NUKAGA will be participating in the exhibition “WORLDS IN BALANCE: ART IN JAPAN FROM THE POSTWAR TO THE PRESENT” at the Okura Museum of Art with a presentation of works by 10 artists, including Yuki Katsura, Saori (Madokoro) Akutagawa, and Atsuko Tanaka.

We would like to introduce one of the exhibited works, the dye-based paintings of Saori (Madokoro) Akutagawa (1924-1966).

Akutagawa originally majored in vocal music at university, but following her marriage in the 1950s, she began creating art as a means of self-expression. Almost entirely self-taught, Akutagawa created works using dye and oil paint, influenced largely by such artists as Picasso, Miró, and Yoshishige Saito. Her dyed works centered around women, mythology and folklore became representative of her practice, and the colorful and free-spirited worlds depicted in her pieces were highly acclaimed by art critics such as Taro Okamoto at the time. Her works continue to be acquired by museum collections both in Japan and abroad.

The work pictured here is entitled “Hito”, or “person.” Akutagawa’s works featured recurring motifs of various familiar objects such as people, plants, insects, and landscapes, and throughout her lifelong practice, she often depicted people in both her dyed works and oil paintings.