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Atsuko Tanaka (artist)
Encyclopedia
Atsuko Tanaka was a pioneering Japanese avant-garde artist.
, on February 10, 1932.. She went to several local art schools where she worked in mostly figurative mode. The schools she had attended were the Art Institute of Osaka Municipal Museum of Art in 1950,and from 1951 on, the Department of Western Painting at Kyoto
Municipal College of Art (now Kyoto City University of Arts). There, she had made friends with a man named Akira Kanayama, who had helped her explore new artistic territories. In 1955, she joined the Gutai group
, an avant-garde artists' movement, to which she belonged until her marriage with Akira Kanayama in 1965. In the same year, Tanaka had left Gutai with Kanayama. She moved in with him in a house at the temple Myo*ho*ji in Osaka. She produced most of her works at home and in the second floor of her parents’ house, which was ten minutes away from where she had lived.. In 1972, Tanaka and her husband had moved from Osaka to Nara. On December 3, 2005, Atsuko died of pneumonia, aged 74.
had been offering private lessons in Western-style oil painting. After being influenced by the many abstractionists in Tokyo, Yoshihara had developed a new kind of art practice that would, in his words, “create things that have never existed before.” In 1954, Yoshihara, accompanied with his young colleagues had founded the Gutai Art Association.
Gutai artists had been known to be one of the first to carry out “happenings”; the physical actions they were involved in were documents of the actions, and the actual performances of the pieces. This brought on a new type of art, known today as performance art. Their creations weren’t influenced by doctrinaire theory; they focused more on playful, whimsical inventions. Similarly, Tanaka had displayed the same type of whimsical inventions through her work.
Tanaka’s pieces can be seen as abstract works that rejected conventional notions of how works of art should appear or “perform.” Tanaka's works, which include abstract paintings, sculpture
s, performances
and installation
s, generally feature objects from everyday life: textiles, door bells, light bulbs and the like. One of these pieces, called Work Bell, produced in 1955, consisted of a string of electric bells laid out around the border of a gallery; the piece included a button for visitors to press which consequently set off a chain of shrieking rings. Another one of her works, called Work (Yellow Cloth),executed in 1955, Tanaka had taken long pieces of plain, dyed fabric and tacked them to a gallery's walls, creating 'paintings' that removed any suggestion of human handling from their forms and surfaces. Her piece, Stage Clothes
, produced in 1956, consisted of gigantic stick-figure frames draped with fabric and light bulbs, and an immense red dress with sleeves 30 feet (9.1 m) long sleeves. This turned out to be a multi-part ensemble that she wore at a Gutai performance. She had peeled off each layer rapidly in a costume-changing routine. Tanaka literally inserted her body into the work of art, making herself a part of the performance.
Her best-known work is "Electric Dress", invented in 1956, a burqa
-like costume consisting of electrical wires and lit-up coloured lightbulbs. Tanaka wore the dress to exhibitions. Her inspiration for her signature work “Electric Dress” was from a pharmaceutical advertisement illuminated by neon lights. The bulky garment expresses the body's circuitry, and acts like a costume. Here, the work lights up sporadically, giving off the sensation of an alien-like creature. According to the Gutai artists, Tanaka's work symbolized post war Japan’s rapid transformation and urbanization. When Tanaka wore her dress for the first time, her face and hands were the only visible subject. She had noticed the trepidation when she had worn it and flipping the switch: "I had the fleeting thought: Is this how a death-row inmate would feel?"
In the 2000s, Tanaka's works were featured in numerous expositions in Japan and abroad, including at the Kyoto National Museum of Modern Art, the Nagoya Gallery HAM, the New York Grey Art Gallery and Paula Cooper Gallery
as well as at the Innsbruck
Galerie im Taxispalais. The Grey Art Gallery focuses on Tanaka's Gutai period and also includes a video and documentation of the movement. This gallery includes a reconstructed version of Electric Dress. Here, the work lights up periodically, buzzing with life like an alien creature.. In 2005, the University of British Columbia
's Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery
in Vancouver
mounted a major exhibition of Tanaka's work entitled "Electrifying art : Atsuko Tanaka, 1954-1968". Electric Dress and other works were on display at the 2007 documenta
12 in Kassel
.
Atsuko Tanaka's work is included in a number of internationally important public collections, including that of New York
's Museum of Modern Art
(MOMA). MOMA's online collection (see external links) features a large, untitled 1964 Tanaka work (synthetic polymer paint on canvas). Nearly 12 feet (3.7 m) tall and over 7 feet (2.1 m) wide, this piece, according to MOMA's online description, "evolved from Tanaka's performance Electric Dress", and "vividly records the artist's gestural application of layers and skeins of multicolored acrylic paint on the canvas as it lay on the floor." http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3ATA%3AE%3Aex4502%7CA%3ATA%3AE%3Aex4502&page_number=5&template_id=1&sort_order=1
Biography
She was born in OsakaOsaka
is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...
, on February 10, 1932.. She went to several local art schools where she worked in mostly figurative mode. The schools she had attended were the Art Institute of Osaka Municipal Museum of Art in 1950,and from 1951 on, the Department of Western Painting at Kyoto
Kyoto
is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...
Municipal College of Art (now Kyoto City University of Arts). There, she had made friends with a man named Akira Kanayama, who had helped her explore new artistic territories. In 1955, she joined the Gutai group
Gutai group
The Gutai group was an artistic movement and association of artists founded by Jiro Yoshihara in Japan in 1954...
, an avant-garde artists' movement, to which she belonged until her marriage with Akira Kanayama in 1965. In the same year, Tanaka had left Gutai with Kanayama. She moved in with him in a house at the temple Myo*ho*ji in Osaka. She produced most of her works at home and in the second floor of her parents’ house, which was ten minutes away from where she had lived.. In 1972, Tanaka and her husband had moved from Osaka to Nara. On December 3, 2005, Atsuko died of pneumonia, aged 74.
Involvement with the Gutai movement
In 1955, Akira Kanayama had introduced Tanaka to his colleagues in an experimental art organization which he had founded called Zero-kai (Zero Society); she had soon joined this association. In the meantime, a skillful easel painter named Jiro YoshiharaJiro Yoshihara
Jiro Yoshihara was a Japanese painter. He is in most sources named as the founder of the Gutai group in 1954. Yoshihara wrote the "Gutai Manifesto" in 1956. This leader of the "Gutai" group - a group of internationally acclaimed avant-garde artists representative of Japan's post-war art world...
had been offering private lessons in Western-style oil painting. After being influenced by the many abstractionists in Tokyo, Yoshihara had developed a new kind of art practice that would, in his words, “create things that have never existed before.” In 1954, Yoshihara, accompanied with his young colleagues had founded the Gutai Art Association.
Gutai artists had been known to be one of the first to carry out “happenings”; the physical actions they were involved in were documents of the actions, and the actual performances of the pieces. This brought on a new type of art, known today as performance art. Their creations weren’t influenced by doctrinaire theory; they focused more on playful, whimsical inventions. Similarly, Tanaka had displayed the same type of whimsical inventions through her work.
Work
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
s, performances
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
and installation
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
s, generally feature objects from everyday life: textiles, door bells, light bulbs and the like. One of these pieces, called Work Bell, produced in 1955, consisted of a string of electric bells laid out around the border of a gallery; the piece included a button for visitors to press which consequently set off a chain of shrieking rings. Another one of her works, called Work (Yellow Cloth),executed in 1955, Tanaka had taken long pieces of plain, dyed fabric and tacked them to a gallery's walls, creating 'paintings' that removed any suggestion of human handling from their forms and surfaces. Her piece, Stage Clothes
Stage clothes
Stage clothes is a term for any clothes used by performers on stage.More specifically, the term is sometimes used only for those clothes which are specially made for the stage performance by a costume designer...
, produced in 1956, consisted of gigantic stick-figure frames draped with fabric and light bulbs, and an immense red dress with sleeves 30 feet (9.1 m) long sleeves. This turned out to be a multi-part ensemble that she wore at a Gutai performance. She had peeled off each layer rapidly in a costume-changing routine. Tanaka literally inserted her body into the work of art, making herself a part of the performance.
Her best-known work is "Electric Dress", invented in 1956, a burqa
Burqa
A burqa is an enveloping outer garment worn by women in some Islamic religion to cover their bodies in public places. The burqa is usually understood to be the woman's loose body-covering , plus the head-covering , plus the face-veil .-Etymology:A speculative and unattested etymology...
-like costume consisting of electrical wires and lit-up coloured lightbulbs. Tanaka wore the dress to exhibitions. Her inspiration for her signature work “Electric Dress” was from a pharmaceutical advertisement illuminated by neon lights. The bulky garment expresses the body's circuitry, and acts like a costume. Here, the work lights up sporadically, giving off the sensation of an alien-like creature. According to the Gutai artists, Tanaka's work symbolized post war Japan’s rapid transformation and urbanization. When Tanaka wore her dress for the first time, her face and hands were the only visible subject. She had noticed the trepidation when she had worn it and flipping the switch: "I had the fleeting thought: Is this how a death-row inmate would feel?"
In the 2000s, Tanaka's works were featured in numerous expositions in Japan and abroad, including at the Kyoto National Museum of Modern Art, the Nagoya Gallery HAM, the New York Grey Art Gallery and Paula Cooper Gallery
Paula Cooper Gallery
The Paula Cooper Gallery is an art gallery in New York City founded in 1968.The gallery is primarily known for the Minimalist and Conceptual artists it has represented and whose careers it helped launch. Such artists include: Carl Andre, Jennifer Bartlett, Lynda Benglis, Mark di Suvero, Donald...
as well as at the Innsbruck
Innsbruck
- Main sights :- Buildings :*Golden Roof*Kaiserliche Hofburg *Hofkirche with the cenotaph of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor*Altes Landhaus...
Galerie im Taxispalais. The Grey Art Gallery focuses on Tanaka's Gutai period and also includes a video and documentation of the movement. This gallery includes a reconstructed version of Electric Dress. Here, the work lights up periodically, buzzing with life like an alien creature.. In 2005, the University of British Columbia
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
's Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery
Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery
The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery is a contemporary art gallery located in Vancouver, British Columbia, on the campus of the University of British Columbia....
in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
mounted a major exhibition of Tanaka's work entitled "Electrifying art : Atsuko Tanaka, 1954-1968". Electric Dress and other works were on display at the 2007 documenta
Documenta
documenta is an exhibition of modern and contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. It was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau which took place in Kassel at that time...
12 in Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
.
Atsuko Tanaka's work is included in a number of internationally important public collections, including that of New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
(MOMA). MOMA's online collection (see external links) features a large, untitled 1964 Tanaka work (synthetic polymer paint on canvas). Nearly 12 feet (3.7 m) tall and over 7 feet (2.1 m) wide, this piece, according to MOMA's online description, "evolved from Tanaka's performance Electric Dress", and "vividly records the artist's gestural application of layers and skeins of multicolored acrylic paint on the canvas as it lay on the floor." http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3ATA%3AE%3Aex4502%7CA%3ATA%3AE%3Aex4502&page_number=5&template_id=1&sort_order=1
External links
- SAST REPORT Culture: Atsuko Tanaka, Gutai
- Askart.com reference pages on Tanaka, including two color images of works by the artist
- Galerie im Taxispalais, information about Tanaka's 2002 exhibition
- Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, information about Tanaka's 2005 exhibition
- Atsuko Tanaka's entry on Art Mo Co
- Museum of Modern Art (New York), essay/description of a Tanaka work in the MOMA collection, with color image