Kinuko Emi

Emi graduated from Hyogo Prefectural Kakogawa Women's Higher School (兵庫県立加古川高等女学校) in 1940.[3] She was a member of the painting club at the school.[7] From 1941 to 1943, Emi studied under Hiroshi Ikawa (伊川寛), a Western-style painter (yōgaka) who later became a member of the Second Era Society (Niki-kai; 二紀会), and from 1945 to 1949, she studied at the Kobe Municipal Western Painting Institute (神戸市立洋画研究).[3] At the time, Western-style oil painting was not considered a woman's career and Emi's father was strongly against his daughter's decision to pursue oil painting after graduation.[7] From 1948 to 1950, Emi worked as a drawing teacher at Kobe Municipal Ota Junior High School (神戸市立太田中学校).[3]

In her early career, Emi actively exhibited her works at the annual juried salon, Action Exhibition (行動展), organized by the Action Art Association (Kōdō bijutsu kyōkai; 行動美術協会). In 1949, Emi's work was selected for the first time at the 4th Action Exhibition, and she moved from Kobe to Yokohama.[1] In 1950, she exhibited at the 5th Action Exhibition and won the Encouragement Prize (奨励賞).[3] In 1951, Emi exhibited Night Crowd (夜の群衆) at the 6th Action Exhibition, which depicted a group of figures in a dark background, and won the Newcomer's Prize (新人賞).[3] In 1952, Emi exhibited Crowd (1) (むれ (1)) and Crowd (2) (むれ (2)), which combined portraits of a reclining nude and a seated group of figures, at the 7th Action Exhibition, and she was awarded the highest prize, Action Art Prize (行動美術賞).[3] In the same year, she exhibited Crowd (1) and Crowd (2) at the annual salon organized by the Women Artists Association (Joryū gaka kyōkai; 女流画家協会) and became a member of the association.[1] In 1953, Emi became the first female member of the Action Art Association.[1]

Emi traveled to the US in November 1953 and held a solo exhibition, Emi Kinuko Gaillard, at the Sausalito Arts Center in Sausalito, California, in February 1954, showing works such as Crowd (2).[8] Emi later traveled to New York and then to Paris, where she stayed until August 1955. In Paris, she frequented the Louvre Museum and studied European paintings. Emi was also exposed to contemporary abstract paintings, such as American Abstract Expressionism and French Art Informel or Tachisme.[3] In 1954, Emi traveled to Southern Europe and was shocked to see the prehistoric cave paintings of Lascaux and Altamira, which led her to think deeply about what art is.[9] These visits proved to be the catalyst for the great shift in her practice to semi-abstraction, in which the subject is captured in a simplified form.[9] Emi returned to Japan in the fall of 1955.

After returning to Japan, Emi participated in the 41st Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture in 1958 and the 3rd Guggenheim International Award in 1960. In 1962, at the 31st Venice Biennale, alongside four male artists, Minoru Kawabata, Kumi Sugai, Tadashi Sugimata, and Ryōkichi Mukai, Emi became the first Japanese female artist to be represented at the Japan Pavilion (The second woman, after Emi, to be represented at the Japan Pavilion was Yayoi Kusama in 1993). Emi developed a variety of original painting techniques over her career. In her Work (作品) series shown at the Venice Biennale, for example, Emi invented the unique creative process as follows: “first, the paint layer is removed from the old paintings by dipping them into the water of a pond; second, the collected paint is dried, ground, and sifted; third the paint particles are mixed with turpentine, left for several days, and then colored by fresh paints such as yellow ochre; fourth, the ground for the new painting is made from the colored mixture applied to a fresh canvas; and fifth, Paynes gray mixed with transparent medium is diluted with turpentine, and then sprinkled over the prepared ground for finishing the work.”[10] After the Venice Biennale, Emi began to use bright colors, and from 1975 to 1986, she developed a technique of pouring turpentine or dissolved paint on canvas.[11] In 1980, Emi said, “My principal motifs consist of four elements, water, fire, solid, and wind. I am aiming at having a cosmic space appear as an integrating factor among these elements, and I will do so.”[11]

In her personal life, she married a French-American sailor and moved to Yamate, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture in 1951. According to her daughter, Anna Ogino, Emi never painted for sale, but only painted what she really wanted to paint, even though she was very poor, and her paintings did not sell well when she was newly married.[6] After establishing her reputation as a painter, she became the founder of the Kanagawa Women Artists Association (Kanagawa-ken joryū bijutsuka kyōkai; 神奈川県女流美術家協会), established in 1961, and has supported the activities of women artists in Kanagawa Prefecture for many years, holding classes in Yokohama and organizing the open-call exhibition for women artists, Women Artists Exhibition (Joryū ten; 女流展).[1] In recognition of these activities, Emi was awarded the 40th Yokohama Culture Award (横浜文化賞) in 1991 and the 46th Kanagawa Culture Award (神奈川文化賞) in 1997.[12][13] She was also honored by the Kanagawa Prefecture in 1978 (神奈川県県民功労者表彰) and Minister of Education in 1984 (地域文化功労者文部大臣表彰) for her contribution to local cultural activities.[14]

• 1954 Sausalito Arts Center, Sausalito, California
• 1956 Muramatsu Gallery (村松画廊), Tokyo
• 1956 Fūgetsudō Gallery (風月堂ギャラリー), Tokyo
• 1957 Muramatsu Gallery (村松画廊), Tokyo
• 1958 Ginza Gallery (銀座画廊), Tokyo
• 1960 Nihonbashi Shirokiya Department Store (日本橋白木屋), Tokyo
• 1961 Tokyo Gallery (東京画廊), Tokyo
• 1996 Yokohama Civic Art Gallery (横浜市民ギャラリー), Yokohama
• 2004 The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura (神奈川県立近代美術館鎌倉)
• 2010 Himeji City Museum of Art (姫路市立美術館)

• 1949 4th Action Exhibition
• 1950 5th Action Exhibition (won the Encouragement Prize)
• 1951 6th Action Exhibition (won the Newcomer's Prize)
• 1952 6th Women Artists Association Exhibition (女流画家協会展)
• 1952 7th Action Exhibition (won the Action Art Prize)
• 1956 10th Women Artists Association Exhibition
• 1957 15 Vanguard Artists (前衛美術の15人), The National Museum of Modern Art (国立近代美術館; present The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, 東京国立近代美術館)
• 1957 11th Women Artists Association Exhibition
• 1958 12th Women Artists Association Exhibition
• 1958 Development of Modern Japanese Abstract Painting (抽象絵画の展開), The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
• 1958, 41st Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture
• 1959 13th Women Artists Association Exhibition
• 1960 3rd Guggenheim International Award
• 1960 Pintura Japonesa Contemporanea, Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro
• 1961 6th Tokyo Biennale (日本国際美術展)
• 1962 31st Venice Biennale Domestic Exhibition of Selected Works (第31回ベニス・ビエンナーレ国際美術展　出品作品国内展示会), Bridgestone Museum of Art (ブリヂストン美術館, present Artizon Museum, アーティゾン美術館)
• 1962 31st Venice Biennale, Japan Pavilion, Venice
• 1962 Oil Painting and Sculpture in Modern Japan (近代日本の造形), The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
• 1963 Views of Contemporary Japanese Ceramics and Trends in Contemporary Painting (現代日本陶芸の展望ならびに現代絵画の動向), inaugural exhibition of The Annex Museum of the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo (国立近代美術館京都分館, present The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, 京都国立近代美術館)
• 1963 7th Tokyo Biennale
• 1964 Postwar Contemporary Japanese Art (戦後の現代日本美術展), The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura
• 1964 TOKYO 1964, Tokyo Gallery
• 1965 8th Tokyo Biennale
• 1977 Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum Collection, Focus on New Acquisitions (東京都美術館収蔵作品展 新収蔵作品を中心として), Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
• 1981 Kaichi Ohashi Collection World of Contemporary Art (大橋嘉一コレクションから　現代美術の世界), Nara Prefectural Museum of Art
• 1989 Museum Collection by Artists Associated with Yokohama, with a Focus on Oil Paintings (所蔵作品展−横浜ゆかりの作家たち…油彩画を中心として), Yokohama Museum of Art
• 1997 Collection Exhibition of Women Painters in Kanagawa (収蔵品による 神奈川の女性画家たち展), The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura Annex
• 2003 Another History (もうひとつの現代), inaugural exhibition of The Museum of Modern Art, Hayama
• 2005 Japanese Women Artists in Avant-Garde Movements, 1950–1975 (前衛の女性1950–1975), Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts