ART-TRIBUTE:Another Energy-Power to Continue Challenging, Part I

In contemporary art for the past decade or so, attention has turned increasingly to female artists who began their contemporary art careers between the 1950s and 1970s and continue to stay active as artists today. The exhibition “Another Energy: Power to Continue Challenging – 16 Women Artists from around the World” shines a light on female artists, who began their careers in the turbulent postwar years from the 1950s to 1970s, and who remain active today in 2021.
This Tribute is in four parts, focusing on four artists each time.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Mori Art Museum Archive

Ranging in ages 71-105 with their careers spanning over 50 years, the artists, of the exhibition “Another Energy: Power to Continue Challenging – 16 Women Artists from around the World” are originally from 14 different countries, and equally diverse in their current locations. Nonetheless, what these women share regardless of recognition or evaluation by art museums and the art market is a determination to pursue their own distinctive creative paths in turbulent environment and times. Showcasing their wide array of powerful works from paintings, video, sculptures, to large-scale installations and performances, 130 works to total, this exhibition contemplates the nature of the special strength or what one may call the driving force – “another energy” – of these artists. Amid the unprecedented condition of the world, perhaps the sight of 16 artists, who all have spent their lives walking their own paths with such immovable conviction, may offer us just the strength to tackle the ongoing challenges and to face the future with resilience and determination.

Since the 1960s, as poet, novelist and painter, Etel Adnan’s work bridges imagery and text, the East and the West, as well as modern and contemporary, while mirroring in her life story of traveling between the continents and cultural spheres. In particular, Japanese culture has served as an inspiration for many works without her even visiting Japan, ever. Her work reflects a sensitive, dynamic relationship with the world, exploring multi-layered matters related to landscape, abstraction, color, writing, memory and history. A subtle political undertone is dominant in the broad spectrum of her works, as Adnan expresses a strong sense of solidarity with anti-war movements worldwide.

Phyllida Barlow grew up in London as the city recovered from the WWII, and went on to study art there. Working in painting and sculpture, she is concerned not only with the beauty of surfaces and forms of materials, but their condition/state in terms of qualities such as time, mass, balance and rhythm, and creates sculptural works in state of transformation – often structures or forms seemingly on the verge of collapse, or of standing upright. She employs inexpensive industrial materials such as concrete, plywood and cardboard, the tense balance between these bare materials providing the underlying element for all her works. Barlow represented UK at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017.

Anna Boghiguian studied political science in the 1960s, before moving to Montreal in the 1970s to study art and music. She now lives rather nomadic, moving around the globe, researching the history, politics and social conditions of each place she stays and lingers in, linking her findings to transnational themes, and exploring mutual connections. Her cutout-drawing installations reminiscent of shadow-puppet theater speak eloquently of the contrasting light and shade of modern society, made visible by her bird’s-eye view of the world. Since documenta 13 in 2012, Boghiguian has been featured in a number of large-scale solo shows and international exhibitions.

Influenced by social trends such as the anti-nuclear movement, Miriam Cahn started her career as an artist in the 1970s. Her charcoal drawings distinguished by powerful lines as well as her vibrantly-colored oil paintings are intimately connected to social issues such as discrimination and violence, to war, and to her own identity as a Jewish woman. In 2017, she took part in documenta 14, and in 2019 had a major solo show that toured to the Kunstmuseum Bern, Haus der Kunst (Munich), and Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw.

Participating Artists: Etel Adnan, Phyllida Barlow, Anna Boghiguian, Miriam Cahn, Lili Dujourie, Anna Bella Geiger, Beatriz González, Carmen Herrera, Kim Soun-Gui, Suzanne Lacy, Mishima Kimiyo, Miyamoto Kazuko, Senga Nengudi, Nunung WS, Arpita Singh and Robin White.

Photo: Miriam Cahn, das schöne blau (the beautiful blue), May 13th, 2017, Oil on canvas, 200 x 195 cm, Collection: WAKO WORKS OF ART, Tokyo

Info: Curators: Kataoka Mami and Martin Germann, Mori Art Museum, 52F/53F Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, 6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan, Duration: 22/4-26/9/2021, Days & Hours: Mon & Wed-Sun 10:00-20:00, Tue 10:00-17:00, www.mori.art.museum