Emi Kinuko

1923｜Hyogo – 2015｜Kanagawa
Born in Akashi, Hyogo. After graduating from Kakogawa Girls’ High School in 1940, Emi (legal name: Ogino Kinuko) studied under the yōga (western style) painter Ikawa Kan and, from 1945 to 1949, at a yōga painting research institute in Kobe. In 1949, she began exhibiting works, including female nude paintings, at the Kōdō Bijutsu Exhibition. She moved to Yokohama in 1951 and then relocated to the U.S. in 1953 before moving to Paris the following year. After seeing the cave paintings at Lascaux and other sites, she began to pursue the origins of painting, prompting a shift toward abstraction. Following her return to Japan in 1955, she continued to participate in domestic and overseas exhibitions. In 1962, she became the first artist-woman to represent Japan at the Venice Biennale. In the 1970s, she explored abstract expressions inspired by the four classical elements.

Emi Kinuko《Festival of Space》1963 Private collection