KAZUYO KINOSHITA, YOKO SAWAI, TOEKO TATSUNO

This latest exhibition focuses on the 1970s output of Kinoshita Kazuyo (1939‒1994), Sawai Yoko (b. 1949), and Tatsuno Toeko (1950‒2014), three pioneering female artists who were among the few of their sex producing richly experimental conceptual expression at a time when women were still struggling to participate in wider society.

In the first half of the 1970s, Kinoshita employed film and photography to reveal the relationship between the existence of things, and our cognisance of them; and the invisible realms of time and dimension, from the viewpoint of ‘disconnect’ or misalignment. In the second half of the decade she used photographs to interrogate the uncertain nature of real-life image on flat surface, in a diverse, ever-evolving array of works offering insights into what it means to ‘see.’

In the first half of the ‘70s Sawai focused on ‘art from things,’ working on numerous exhibits that transformed spaces through encounters between disparate objects, from wood blocks and lead plating to fluorescent tubes and newspaper. Switching mid- decade to two-dimensional works, she began using a box cutter to make fine slits in paper, and drawing lines in crayon across these slits at right angles to throw the lines into relief, in works that interrogate the boundary between painting and objet d’art.

Tatsuno meanwhile adopted multiple approaches to print media expression from early in the ‘70s. Employing the then new technique of silkscreen, while using the ruled lines in exercise books, and standard Minimalist forms such as grids, dots and tiles, she printed in layers to generate ‘discrepancies,’ also adding freehand lines and other elements in idiosyncratic expression that distinguished her work from Minimalism.

From the 1980s Kinoshita and Tatsuno switched to large, abstract oil paintings in vibrant shades, while Sawai ceased making and presenting work for about ten years. Though Kinoshita was a decade or so senior to Sawai and Tatsuno, the trio were not only active concurrently as artists, but also closely connected in both their public and private lives.

_Kazuyo Kinoshita, Yoko Sawai, Toeko Tatsuno: The 1970s̶Beyond ‘Barren’ _presents the experimental, inventive creative work produced by these individual women as they met, occasionally joined forces, and offered encouragement to each other during a decade when the contemporary art scene was still very much dominated by male critics and artists.

*In closing, allow us to express our deepest gratitude to the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo Curatorial Assistant OGAWA Ayako for her generous cooperation in organizing this exhibition. Thank you.