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Mitsuko Tabe

Mitsuko Tabe was a Fukuoka-based multimedia artist and was a key member in the avant-garde art group Kyūshū-ha, active between 1957 and 1968. In her Kyūshu-ha period, Tabe investigated the issues related to environmentalism and the aspects of female identity, including sexuality, procreation, and social advancement. She has worked in a variety of mediums, ranging from painting to installation to performance. After the group's dissolution, Tabe continued to work independently and advocate for the visibility of female artists in Kyūshū.

Biography
Early years Mitsuko Tabe was born in Taitung in the Japan-occupied Taiwan in 1933. Her father, Kogoro Ishibashi, applied for a police officer position in Taiwan after the bankruptcy of the family’s sawmill, and subsequently moved the entire family there. Tabe lived in the countryside of Taiwan before the start of kindergarten and went to Taitung National School for elementary school. In her early years, the family traveled frequently between Taiwan and Japan, before settling back in Fukuoka after WWII in 1946. Tabe remembered staying for some time in Amagi, a smaller town near Fukuoka during her early years, and spending a lot of time learning sewing and dressmaking from her mother Rie. In 1951, graduating from the Fukuoka Prefectural Ukiwa High School, Tabe began painting on her own. At around the same time she also started working in the sales section of a coal company in Fukuoka. In the same year when she started working at Iwataya, Tabe joined the company’s French and painting circles, two of the company's hobby circles. These hobby circles, referred to as Saibi-kai, were established by the company for publicity purposes. Tabe drew the streets of downtown Fukuoka, where Iwataya was located, and worked on many paintings of landscape and daily objects. As one of the few female members, Tabe brought a feminist viewpoint to the group. Anger of Fishes won the Asahi Silver Prize at the 3rd Western Women's Art Exhibition (1959) and the Gold Prize at the 3rd Western Japan Western-style Painting Newcomer's Excellence Exhibition (1960), and was exhibited in the 2nd Kyushu Independent Exhibition organized by the Nishinippon Shimbun. Placards series (Purakādo, プラカード, 1961) Tabe sourced magazine cutouts and kiss-shaped stamps and used resin to produce these collages. The magazine cutouts contain images of American popular culture, especially those of African American jazz musicians and soldiers at war. Three of the five Placards feature a representation of the African continents, and two of them also had strands of reddish hemp palm fiber pasted onto the collages, pointing at the blood shed in acquiring freedom. The images and the map loosely point to the civil rights movement in the United States and perhaps the independences of African nations. The installation consists of the hip portion of three mannequins and the torso portions of two child mannequins. The hip sections, covered by cotton, cloth, and scattered nails, were placed upside down on pedestals against a wall. With an opening in the center that resembles the exposure of the uterus, each hip section had a vacuum tube inserted into the reproductive organ. The artist also used ping-pong balls to outline the opening. Above the hip sections, the child torso sections were hung horizontally on the same wall. Meanwhile, Artificial Placenta did not resonate with the female audience at the time of its release. Tabe said, “[Ideas of] women’s revolution, feminism, and gender did not yet enter Japan, so there was no response from women even though I was making an important statement. She also created a space lined with the legs of mannequins wearing stockings, which was described by critic Yoshida Yoshie as “a cathedral of nymphomaniac rituals unique to the Kyūshū-ha’s women's group.” Sex Museum (Sekkusu Hakubutsukan, セックス博物館, 1968) Source: In the 1969 exhibition, she participated in a parade, carrying a doll on her back as she walked through the city, trying to demonstrate the hardships housewives faced in raising their children. Since 1994, Tabe has exhibited worldwide, including New York, Washington D.C., and Paris. Between 1995 and 2010, she served as the first president of the Fukuoka City Art Association. Since 2002, she has also collaborated with American jazz keyboardist Bob James. In 2015, she established the "3-Chome Art School" in Tenjin, Fukuoka City, under the title of “the world's smallest art school.” ==Other notable artworks==
Other notable artworks
The Right and Wrong Sides (1963) I Love the Earth == Exhibitions and awards==
Exhibitions and awards
1953 The 13th Prefectural Exhibition, Fukuoka 1960 Gold Award at the 3rd West Japan Western Painting Exhibition 1960-63 Yomiuri Independent Exhibition 1964 Solo exhibition, Tokyo 1971 The 5th Kyushu Contemporary Art Trend Exhibition, Fukuoka Prefectural Culture Hall 1972–73 Will to Possibility, Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, Yawata 1974 Illusion and Emotion, Fukuoka Prefectural Cultural Hall, Fukuoka 1974–84 Kyushu Women Painters Exhibition (organizer) 1976, 1978 Solo exhibition, Toa Gallery, Muraokaya & Fukuoka Prefectural Cultural Hall 1978 Amigo Exhibition — Toshiko Hirayama, Aiko Oguro, Mitsuko Tabe, Art Stage, Fukuoka 1978 10th Today’s Art Exhibition, Fukuoka Prefectural Cultural Hall 1981, 1983, 1990 Earth Art Post Office Exhibitions 1981, 1983 Solo exhibitions, Fukuoka 1982 Kyushu Women Painters Special Exhibition, Fukuoka Prefectural Cultural Hall 1984 Eight Women Artists Exhibition, Gallery DON, Fukuoka 1987 '87 Kyushu Contemporary Art - Transformation of Creation, Fukuoka Prefectural Art Museum 1988 Kyushu-ha Exhibition: Anti-Art Project, Fukuoka Art Museum 1988 Asia International Art Exhibition, Fukuoka Art Museum 1988–90 Solo exhibitions 1990 World Mail · Art Exhibition, Gallery Gaya, Fukuoka 1992–93 Solo exhibition, Makigami Gallery, Tokyo 1993 Fukuoka Nichido Gallery, Tokyo 1993 Contemporary Art of Kyushu 93’: the Rebirth of Image Exhibition, Fukuoka 1994–95 Solo exhibition, Cast Iron Gallery, New York 1995 Contemporary Art Techniques / Collage Exhibition, Nerima Ward Museum of Art, Tokyo 1998 Exhibition, Gallery Okuda International, Washington, D.C. 1999 Exhibition, Adirondack Community College, New York 2000 Fukuoka City Culture Award; Solo Exhibition, Kurokawa INN Art Museum, Fukuoka; 7th Fukuoka City Art Federation Exhibition, Fukuoka City Art Museum 2002 Mitsuko Tabe: Recent Works, Gallery Toile, Fukuoka 2003 Kyushu Power, Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto 2003–04 Solo exhibition, Gallery 58 2005 Apple’s Secret, Hiroshima Museum of Art 2005 Japanese Women Artists in Avant-Garde Movements, 1950-1975, Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Art 2012 Mizoe Gallery, Fukuoka 2013 Mitsuko Tabe: Life is Art, Fukuoka Art Museum 2013 New Works by Mitsuko Tabe, Mizoe Art Gallery, Fukuoka 2015 Exhibition of 100 Works by Mitsuko Tabe and the Best Artists of Kyushu, Y Art Gallery, Osaka 2015 Kyushu-ha Exhibition, Fukuoka Art Museum 2017 Mitsuko Tabe: Evolution is Very Creative, Mizoe Art Gallery, Fukuoka 2022 Mitsuko Tabe Exhibition, Fukuoka Art Museum ==Books==
Books
The Earth Post Office for Incoming Caller Payment, Ikka Shobo, 1984 The Dream Eater: The World of Michiko Ishimure (co-authored with Nobuko Kono), Fujiwara Shoten, 1992 The Art of Conception, Hana Shoin, 1997 The Apple of Two Thousand Years: My Theory of De-Art, Nishinippon Shimbun, 2001 ==Collections==
Collections
Fukuoka Art Museum Mizoe Art Gallery Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto SUNY Adirondack ==References==
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