Kinuko Emi

Kinuko Emi (江見絹子, Emi Kinuko; born Ogino Kinuko, 荻野絹子, on June 7, 1923, died on January 13, 2015) was a Japanese painter.

Emi is best known for her abstract painting in bold colors featuring the motif of four classical elements (fire, air, water, and earth).

Emi was born on June 7, 1923, in Akashi, Hyōgo Prefecture.

Emi graduated from Hyogo Prefectural Kakogawa Women's Higher School (兵庫県立加古川高等女学校) in 1940.

She was a member of the painting club at the school.

From 1941 to 1943, Emi studied under Hiroshi Ikawa (伊川寛), a Western-style oil painter 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 (神戸市立洋画研究所).

At the time, Western-style painting was not considered a woman's career and Emi's father strongly opposed his daughter's decision to pursue oil painting after graduation.

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).

In her early career, Emi actively exhibited her works at the annual juried salon hosted by the Kōdō Bijutsu Association (行動美術協会; literally "Action Art Society").

With her figurative female nudes, she quickly moved up the membership ladder of Kōdō Bijutsu.

In 1948, after her work was accepted for the first time at Kōdō's 4th exhibition, she moved from Kobe to Yokohama.

From 1950 onward, her works were regularly accepted to Kōdō's annual exhibitions; she was awarded the Encouragement Prize (奨励賞) at the 5th exhibition in 1950, followed by the Newcomer's Prize (新人賞) at the 6th exhibition in 1951.

At the 7th exhibition in 1952, Emi exhibited Crowd (2) (むれ(2)) that depicted a group of figurative nude women in dark colours, and won the highest prize, Kōdō Bijutsu Prize (行動美術賞).

Meanwhile, in 1952, her work was accepted to the annual salon of the Women Artists Association (Joryū Gaka Kyōkai; 女流画家協会), which led to her membership in the association.

In 1953, with these achievements, Emi was made Kōdō's first woman member at the 8th exhibition, where she exhibited another female nude, Three Standing Women (三立婦).

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).

In 1954, when Emi traveled to Southern Europe, she was shocked to see the prehistoric cave paintings of Lascaux and Altamira, which led her to reconsider what art is.

These visits prompted a great shift in her practice to semi-abstraction, in which the subject is captured in a simplified form.

Emi later traveled to New York and then to Paris, where she stayed until August 1955.

In Paris, Emi frequented the Louvre Museum and she "was astonished by the evidently long tradition of concrete expression in European painting, especially in regard to the nude."

Emi was also exposed to contemporary abstract paintings, such as American Abstract Expressionism and French Art Informel or Tachisme.

Emi returned to Japan in the fall of 1955.

After returning to Japan, Emi received greater visibility and opportunities as an abstract painter.

Masao Momiya, curator of the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama pointed out: "Certainly [ Art Informel and Abstract Expressionism] were much admired during this period. Nevertheless, the development of [Emi’s] abstract painting does not readily indicate her debt to such movements but, rather, speaks to the personal efforts made by a painter who continued to change course in pursuit of a unique mode of expression."

Indeed, Emi refused to follow what the critics of the time were appreciating.

In 1958, Ichirō Haryū, one of the most influential "Big Three" critics of postwar Japan, visited Emi's solo show and described her Symbol (象徴) as follows: "Expressive elements are restrained, and an architectural structure consisting of colored rectangular planes and lines is outstanding. Nevertheless, a method of painting powerfully with the palette knife has been intensified and, in conjunction with a collage-like structure, strongly evokes a feeling for materials. This result in a space filled with energy. This particular work consists of two adjoining canvases, and the painter has thoughtfully considered the contrast and balance of left and right."

Despite such applause by the influential male critic, Emi "subsequently reversed the two canvases that comprise Symbol and incorporated space between them when they were shown in the Second Shell Art Award Exhibition of 1958."

Emi won the third prize for her Symbol at the Second Shell Art Award Exhibition (present Idemitsu Art Award), held at the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura in 1958.

She also participated in the 41st Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture in 1958 and the 3rd Guggenheim International Award in 1960.

At the 31st Venice Biennale in 1962, Emi's work was exhibited in the Japan Pavilion alongside that of four male artists, making her the first Japanese woman artist to be shown at the country's Pavilion.

At the 31st Venice Biennale in 1962, Emi became the first Japanese female artist to exhibit at the Japan Pavilion (commissioner: Atsuo Imaizumi).

Although her work was shown alongside four male artists—Minoru Kawabata, Kumi Sugai, Tadashi Sugimata, and Ryōkichi Mukai—her presence was far ahead of its time.

According to Masao Momiya, "the period from 1967 to 1974, during which she made conceptual works and realistic, or illusionistic works—sometimes in the form of shaped canvases—was a difficult time of trial and error."

The second woman, after Emi, to represent Japan at the Venice Biennale was Yayoi Kusama in 1993, notably also the first Japanese woman artist to hold solo show at the country's Pavilion.

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 a unique creative process described 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.”

After the Venice Biennale, Emi occasionally returned to figurative expression.

She had retrospective exhibitions at the Yokohama Civic Art Gallery in 1996, the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura in 2004 and Himeji City Museum of Art in 2010.

Emi's works are in the collection of the National Museum of Art, Osaka, the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama, Yokohama Museum of Art, and Takamatsu Art Museum, among others.

Emi's daughter, Anna Ogino, is an Akutagawa Prize-winning novelist and emeritus professor of French literature at Keio University, Tokyo, who serves as the custodian of her mother's works and legacy.