Atsuko Tanaka

Atsuko Tanaka (born in Osaka in 1932, died in 2005 in Nara, Japan) appeared on the Japanese art scene in 1951, when she enrolled at the Art Institute at the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art. Four years later, after studying art in Kyoto, Tanaka joined the newly-formed avant-garde group Gutai. Under the motto “do what no one has done before”, the members of Gutai turned away from representational art. Through performative practices and simple, mundane materials, they wanted to dissolve the boundary between art and life. At Gutai’s first exhibitions, in 1955 and 1956, Tanaka presented works that are now considered iconic. Atsuko Tanaka was a member of Gutai until 1965, and one of the group’s most radical artists.