Tokyo_PREVIEW

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Plate 23
NAKAMURA HIROSHI
Period of War (Sensōki)
1958
Oil on plywood
36 ≈ 71 3/4" (91.5 ≈ 182.3 cm)
Plate 24
NAKAMURA HIROSHI
Period of Peace (Heiwaki)
1958
Oil and newspaper on plywood
36 1/8 ≈ 71 7/8" (91.7 ≈ 182.5 cm)
Plate 25
NAKAMURA HIROSHI
Upheaval (Nairanki)
1958
Oil and pencil on plywood
36 1/4 ≈ 72 7/16" (92 ≈ 184 cm)
Plate 26
MADOKORO (AKUTAGAWA) SAORI
Myth, Birth of Gods
(Shinwa, kamigami no tanjō)
1956
Dyed linen
52 3/8 ≈ 77 5/8" (133 ≈ 197.2 cm)
Although the art world at this time was dominated
by male artists (this is true for the whole period
concerned here), there were important contributions
from women — possibly due to the radically changed
social climate and structure in postwar years, in no
small measure affected by the American-led reconstruction
effort. Madokoro (Akutagawa) Saori, whose
career was cut short by her death at forty-two in
1966, was closely associated with Ishii, Ikeda, and
Kawara. 21 In the mid-1950s she made paintings that
are notable for their unique dyeing technique and
for their mythological and primitive iconography,
as seen in Myth, Birth of Gods (Shinwa, kamigami
no tanjō, 1956; plate 26). In contrast, Yayoi Kusama’s
connections with the Tokyo scene, though significant,
were few, and this separation from her contemporaries
was made even wider with her departure from
Japan in 1957. 22 Kusama’s drawings from the years
leading up to her emigration to the United States
presage what would become her signature stylistic
languages — obsessional accumulation and what she
would dub “Infinity Nets” — which might be characterized
as a sublimation of figuration. These elements
can be seen in such works as Infinity Nets (1951;
plate 27); Untitled (1952; plate 28); and Untitled
(1954; plate 29). While her abstraction distinguishes
Kusama’s work from the styles of her contemporaries,
the organicism and sense of proliferation in
her paintings closely resonate with the work of her
male cohorts, in particular Ishii.
Another resonance is evident with abstract
paintings by Maeda Jōsaku and Nakanishi Natsuyuki.
The former’s Garden of Earthly Delights (Jardin
des Delice [sic]; Kairaku no sono, 1959; plate 30)
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