Sayako Kishimoto was a Japanese artist who worked across mediums including paintings, drawings, and performances.
22 Facts About Sayako Kishimoto
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Best known as one of the few female members in the short-lived art collective Neo-Dada Organizers, Kishimoto investigated female identity and the definition of a female avant-garde artist through destruction-oriented practices in the 1960s.
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Sayako Kishimoto envisioned a society in which everyone would strive to reach the bottom of a hierarchy instead of the top as in real life.
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Sayako Kishimoto translated her utopian view onto several canvases in the 80s, where motifs of animals and expressive strokes constituted modern allegories.
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On October 1,1939, Sayako Kishimoto was born as the third child and second daughter to Sayako Kishimoto Ken'ichi and Natsuko.
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In 1946, Sayako Kishimoto attended the Nagoya Municipal Yagoto Elementary School and in 1952, the Nanzan Middle School where she joined the art club.
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Sayako Kishimoto then studied in the Art Department of the Aichi Prefectural Asahigaoka Senior High School.
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However, Sayako Kishimoto's father was reportedly overwhelmed by the vast amount of oil paintings in museums when he traveled to Europe for an academic conference.
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Sayako Kishimoto studied for another year but her second attempt to gain admission to the Tokyo University of the Arts fell through.
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At Tama Art University, Sayako Kishimoto became acquainted with the idea of avant-garde.
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Sayako Kishimoto was persuaded to become involved in events directed by other male artists with the goal of attracting media attention.
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Sayako Kishimoto's presence resembled that of a mascot and provided a female form for the group to experiment with.
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Sayako Kishimoto exhibited in the 12th to 15th Yomiuri Independant Exhibitions from 1960 to 1963, and had her first solo show at Naiqua Gallery in 1964.
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In 1966, at her solo exhibition Narusisu no bohyo [The Gravestones of Narcissus] at Tsubaki Kindai Gallery, Tokyo, Sayako Kishimoto presented a multimedia installation that announced her stance on the female identity.
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The idea of male dominance in art had shaped Sayako Kishimoto's projected image then of how a real avant-garde artist should behave.
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Sayako Kishimoto covered herself with paint and eventually cut her hair.
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From this exhibition until the end of 70s, Sayako Kishimoto temporarily renamed herself Mari Sayako Kishimoto.
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In January 1976, Sayako Kishimoto participated in "Artists Union Symposium '76" and in July, exhibited her work Rain at the Women Filmmaker's Festival.
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In May 1979, Sayako Kishimoto had an operation to treat breast cancer and since then officially moved back to Nagoya.
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The ideal society pictured by Sayako Kishimoto involved an inverted triangle structure within which people competing to move down, to the bottom.
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In 1986, when breast cancer recurred for Sayako Kishimoto, she started to spend most of her time in the hospital.
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In May 1988, Sayako Kishimoto began her sickbed portrait sketch series, and the works were assembled together in the Sickbed Sketch Exhibition - Revival of the Soul at the Love Collection Gallery, Nagoya in June.