In Japan during the 1950s and 1960s, female artists attracted attention in the realm of avant-garde art. This trend was encouraged by the art informel movement that came from abroad, but when the stylistic concept of “action painting” was introduced next, women painters disappeared from most criticism. The notion of “action,” such as boldness and strength, closely associated with masculinity, caused a swingback to the traditional gender order. This exhibition is an attempt to reinterpret modern and contemporary Japanese art history from the perspective disclosed by Nakajima Izumi in her 2019 book Anti-action: Post-war Japanese Art and Women Artists. Based on the perspective of “anti-action,” which aims to review art … Continue reading Anti-Action: Artist-Women’s Challenges and Responses in Postwar Japan