PRESS RELEASE

2021.7.15

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History andCulture are carrying out this exhibition as part of the Tokyo Tokyo FESTIVAL.

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo

Viva Video! :The Art and Life of Shigeko Kubota
November 13. 2021‒ February 23. 2022

Photo: Tom Harr Design: Akira Sasaki[Press image 1]

This exhibition will be the first major survey of the art of Shigeko Kubota (1937-2015) in Japannearly in three decades. Born in Niigata and educated in Tokyo, Kubota moved to New York in
1964 to join the Fluxus movement. Kubota became internationally known as a pioneering artist
for her “video sculpture,” which integrated video into three-dimensional structures. Her
contribution to contemporary art, however, has yet to be adequately evaluated.
The goal of the exhibition is to provide an updated and contextualized survey of the JapaneseAmerican female artist Shigeko Kubota to international audiences. Shortly after the artistʼspassing in 2015, the Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation was established in New York at thebequest of the artist to preserve and further the study of Kubotaʼs life and legacy, in addition
to advancing the field of video art. Drawing significantly from a collection of recently restored
sculptures, drawings, photographs, and ephemera of the Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation,and complementing them with additional works from Japanese museums and archival
materials from the artist's family, the exhibition will showcase a diverse array of materials forthe first time.
What was Kubota thinking and seeking as a female artist who was developing her art on theworld stage at the dawn of new media art? The exhibition will present multivalent views of
Kubotaʼs life and work through drawings, photographs, archival documents, and video including her Duchampiana video sculpture series.
Contact

Museum: Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Public Relations Chiako Kudo / Mihoko Nakajima E-MAIL: mot-pr@mot-art.jp
TEL: +81-3-5245-1134
URL: https://www.mot-art-museum.jp/en* All Programs are subject to change.

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PRESS RELEASE
Viva Video!: The Art and Life of Shigeko Kubota

Highlights of the exhibition
The first posthumous exhibition and the first exhibition in Japan in nearly 30 years- exhibiting many never-before-seen works.

Skater (1991-92), modeled after figure skater, Midori Ito, who won the silver medal at the
1992 Winter Olympic games, and Korean Grave (1993), based on Kubota and Nam June Paik’s
visit to Paik’s family grave, are the video sculptures to be shown in Japan for the firsttime.
Photographs and letters which demonstrate her relationships with various artists areworld premiere.

Skater, 1991-92,
Collection of Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation,
Installation view at the Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, 2021,
Photo: Yukihiro Yoshihara, © Estate of Shigeko Kubota [Press image

2]

Korean Grave, 1993,
Collection of Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation,
Installation view at the Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, 2021,
Photo: Yukihiro Yoshihara, © Estate of Shigeko Kubota[Press image 3]

Introducing Kubota’s early activities before her video sculptures
The exhibition introduces Kubota’s early artistic career, including her activities in Fluxus, andher involvement in the Sonic Arts Union, before she became known as a video artist.

Exhibiting her signature series, Duchampiana, in its entirety
The exhibition will display the whole series of her signature video sculpture, Duchampiana,
which was inspired by the artist’s meeting with the late Dada artist Marcel Duchamp. It will
demonstrate Kubota’s respect for Duchamp and her challenge to surpass his art.

Duchampiana: Bicycle Wheel One, Two, Three and Three Mountains
Installation view at Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, 1992,
Photo by Yoshitaka Uchida,

Photo by Peter Moore, Courtesy of Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation;©Estate of Shigeko Kubota

Courtesy of Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation;© Estate of Shigeko Kubota

Meta-Marcel: Window (Flowers) (detail), 1976-77/83,[Press image 4][Press image 5]

Contact

Museum: Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Public Relations Chiako Kudo / Mihoko Nakajima E-MAIL: mot-pr@mot-art.jp
TEL: +81-3-5245-1134
URL: https://www.mot-art-museum.jp/en* All Programs are subject to change.

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PRESS RELEASE
Viva Video!: The Art and Life of Shigeko Kubota

Contents of the Exhibition:
1.

Early Years: From Niigata to Tokyo

The first section, “Early Years: From Niigata to Tokyo,” will introduce Kubota’s upbringing in
Niigata and artistic development in Tokyo through personal archival documents, photographs,
and some early artworks. Born in 1937 and raised in a relatively liberal household, Kubota
aspired to be a sculptor and studied at the Tokyo University of Education. Upon graduation in
1960, she became involved in Tokyo’s close-knit avant-garde art community. Along with the
documentation of Kubota’s first solo exhibition at Naiqua Gallery (1963), some works by her
contemporaries, such as Group Ongaku, Hi Red Center, and Yoko Ono will contextualize
Kubota’s position within the Tokyo avant-garde. After realizing the limited opportunities for afemale artist there, Kubota decided to move to New York.

2.

To New York: Fluxus, Performance, and Sonic Arts Union

The second section, “To New York,” will trace Kubota’s activities in the avant-garde collective,
Fluxus, and her activities with the international artists based in New York. While working
closely with the impresario of Fluxus, George Maciunas, Kubota produced her witty Flux
objects, such as, Flux Napkin (1965) and Flux Medicine (1966). Her performance, Vagina
Painting (1965), presented as part of a Fluxus event, gained her notoriety, although its
relevance is currently being evaluated in art and socio-cultural history. The last part of thesection will shed light on her involvement with Sonic Arts Union, which included her firsthusband, composer David Behrman.

3.

Encounter with Video

After 1970, Kubota started making video works while living with Nam June Paik, who would
later become her life partner. This important transition to video is shown with early singlechannel videos, such as, Broken Diary: Europe in Half Inch a Day (1972), which was created bytraveling through Europe with a SONY portapak. Her multimedia collaboration with womenartists such as Mary Lucier, will also be shown.

Shigeko Kubota Portrait ©Tom Haar, 1972.
Courtesy of Tom Haar and Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation[Press image 6]

You are not allowed to use the image for free except innewspapers. If you would like to use the image on any
other media, You need to pay for a licenseand get thenecessary permission.

Contact

Museum: Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Public Relations Chiako Kudo / Mihoko Nakajima E-MAIL: mot-pr@mot-art.jp
TEL: +81-3-5245-1134
URL: https://www.mot-art-museum.jp/en* All Programs are subject to change.

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PRESS RELEASE
Viva Video!: The Art and Life of Shigeko Kubota
4.

Duchampiana: The Birth of Video Sculpture

Propelled by her chance encounter with Marcel Duchamp in 1968, Kubota took photographs ofthe chess concert, Reunion, between Duchamp and John Cage, and created a book with audio,
Marcel Duchamp and John Cage (1970). The Duchampiana series, which she produced as an
homage to Duchamp became Kubota’s signature video sculptures. One of the series, Nude
Descending a Staircase (1975-76/83), shows the repeated movement of a female nude model
walking down a staircase on four monitors encased within a wooden staircase. For its witty
reinterpretation of Duchamp’s renowned painting in the time-based medium of video, it
became the first video sculpture to have been acquired by the Museum of Modern Art, New
York. After Kubota was invited to the international exhibition of contemporary sculpture,
Documenta VI in Kassel, Germany in 1977, her visibility in Europe increased and she often
exhibited her work there.

Duchampiana: Nude Descending a Staircase, 1975‒76/83,
Collection of Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design,
Installation view at the Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, 2021,
Photo: Yukihiro Yoshihara, © Estate of Shigeko Kubota

Three Mountains, 1976-79,
Photo by Peter Moore, Courtesy of Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation;© Estate of Shigeko Kubota [Press

image 8][Press image 7]

5.

Expanding Video Sculptures

The fifth section, “Expanding Video Sculptures,” will showcase Kubota’s works created in
the 1980s and 1990s, to demonstrate the spatial and temporal expansion of her video
work into large-scale installations, using elements such as water and kinetic motion.
Signature works from the period include: River (1979-81) which consists of three monitors
hung face down from the ceiling and a stainless-steel basin filled with the moving water.
These works exist in the viewer’s space and invite interaction and contemplation frommultiple vantage points.

Niagara Falls, 1985/2021

River, 1979-81
Photo by Peter Moore, Courtesy of Shigeko Kubota Video Art
Foundation; © Estate of Shigeko Kubota[Press image 9]

Collection of Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation, Installation view at
the Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, 2021, Photo: Yukihiro
Yoshihara, © Estate of Shigeko Kubota[Press image 10]

Museum: Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Public Relations Chiako Kudo / Mihoko Nakajima E-MAIL: mot-pr@mot-art.jp
TEL: +81-3-5245-1134
URL: https://www.mot-art-museum.jp/en* All Programs are subject to change.

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ContactPRESS RELEASE
Viva Video!: The Art and Life of Shigeko Kubota
6. The Art and LifeIn 1991, the American Museum of the Moving Image in New York organized Kubota’s firstmuseum-scale solo exhibition, and a slightly different version which traveled to the Hara
Museum in Tokyo, Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Kunsthalle zu Kiel, and Fundazione
Mudima in Milan. Kubota’s success was abruptly interrupted by her husband Paik’s strokein 1996. Henceforth, Kubota focused on assisting him with his physical disabilities andlogistically with his exhibition practice, until his death in 2006. While fighting her own
illnesses in the last decades of her life, she produced her last body of work which reflects
on her life with Paik and her love for him.

Sexual Healing, 1998

Courtesy of Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), NY [Press image 11]

Contact

Museum: Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Public Relations Chiako Kudo / Mihoko Nakajima E-MAIL: mot-pr@mot-art.jp
TEL: +81-3-5245-1134
URL: https://www.mot-art-museum.jp/en* All Programs are subject to change.

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PRESS RELEASE
Viva Video!: The Art and Life of Shigeko Kubota

Information
Exhibition Period

Sat. 13 November. 2021 – Wed. National Holiday. 23 February 2022

ClosedMondays (except 10 Jan., 21 Feb. 2022),
28 Dec. 2021– 1 Jan., 11 Jan. 2022

Opening Hours

10:00-18:00 (Tickets available until 30 minutes before closing.)

Admission

Adults－1,400 yen / University & College Students, Over 65－1,000yen/ High School & Junior High School Students－600 yen / Elementary
School Students & Younger－Free

Venue

Exhibition Gallery 3F, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo

Curators

Mayumi Hamada, The Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art
Azusa Hashimoto, The National Museum of Art, Osaka
Mihoko Nishikawa, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Midori Yoshimoto, New Jersey City University, U.S.A.

Organizers

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo operated by Tokyo Metropolitan
Foundation for History and Culture, The Yomiuri Shimbun,
The Japan Association of Art Museums

Sponsors

Lion Corporation, Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd., Sompo Japan
Insurance Inc., Nippon Television Network Corporation

Grant support

Terra Foundation for American Art, The Agency for Cultural Affairs
Government of Japan in the fiscal 2020, The Pola Art Foundation

The organizers would like to express their special thanks to the Shigeko Kubota Video Art
Foundation, New York.
“The Terra Foundation for American Art is dedicated to fostering exploration, understanding, andenjoyment of the visual arts of the United States for national and international audiences.
Recognizing the importance of experiencing original works of art, the foundation provides
opportunities for interaction and study, beginning with the presentation and growth of its own art
collection in Chicago. To further cross-cultural dialogue on American art, the foundation supports andcollaborates on innovative exhibitions, research, and educational programs. Implicit in such activities
is the belief that art has the potential both to distinguish cultures and to unite them.”

For further inquiry about the artist, please contact to Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation[info@videoartfoundation.org].
All works © 2021, Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation

Concurrent Exhibitions“EUGENE STUDIO: After the rainbow““Christian Marclay”“MOT Collection”

Contact

Museum: Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Public Relations Chiako Kudo / Mihoko Nakajima E-MAIL: mot-pr@mot-art.jp
TEL: +81-3-5245-1134
URL: https://www.mot-art-museum.jp/en* All Programs are subject to change.

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IMAGE REQUEST FORM

FAX. +81-3-5245-1141

We have prepared 11 PR images for members of the press for the purpose of creating or supporting timely news stories
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Press images must be reproduced in their entirety, and must include any available identifying information provided by themuseum, including proprietary collection information, credit lines, copyright, and trademark notices. Images may not be
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The images can be obtained upon request using the following image request form. Please provide the following information
via e-mail or fax (+81-3-5245-1141). With regards to the usage of these images in your publication, we would like to makethe following requests:* We would much appreciate it if we could be provided with a copy of respective article texts for us to check for errors before
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* We kindly ask for a copy of the respective magazine, newspaper, DVD, video file, website link etc. for us to keep in ourpress archives.

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□1

Main Visual Photo: Tom Harr, Design: Akira Sasaki□2

Skater, 1991-92, Collection of Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation, Installation view at the Niigata Prefectural
Museum of Modern Art, 2021, Photo: Yukihiro Yoshihara, © Estate of Shigeko Kubota□3

Korean Grave, 1993, Collection of Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation, Installation view at the Niigata
Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, 2021, Photo: Yukihiro Yoshihara, © Estate of Shigeko Kubota□4

Duchampiana: Bicycle Wheel One, Two, Three and Three Mountains Installation view at Hara Museum ofContemporary Art, 1992, Photo by Yoshitaka Uchida, Courtesy of Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation; © Estateof Shigeko Kubota□5

Meta-Marcel: Window (Flowers) (detail), 1976-77/83, Photo by Peter Moore, Courtesy of Shigeko Kubota VideoArt Foundation; © Estate of Shigeko Kubota□6

Shigeko Kubota Portrait © Tom Haar, 1972. Courtesy of Tom Haar and Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation.
You are not allowed to use the image for free except in newspapers. If you would like to use the image on any other media, you need to pay for alicense and get the necessary permission.

□7

Duchampiana: Nude Descending a Staircase,1975-76/83, Collection of Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and
Design, Installation view at the Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, 2021, Photo: Yukihiro Yoshihara, ©
Estate of Shigeko Kubota□8

Three Mountains, 1976-79, Photo by Peter Moore, Courtesy of Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation; © Estate of
Shigeko Kubota□9River, 1979-81, Photo by Peter Moore, Courtesy of Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation; © Estate of Shigeko
Kubota□10 Niagara Falls, 1985/2021, Collection of Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation, Installation view at the Niigata
Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, 2021, Photo: Yukihiro Yoshihara, © Estate of Shigeko Kubota□11 Sexual Healing, 1998, Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), NY
Contact

Museum: Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Public Relations Chiako Kudo / Mihoko Nakajima E-MAIL: mot-pr@mot-art.jp
TEL: +81-3-5245-1134
URL: https://www.mot-art-museum.jp/en* All Programs are subject to change.

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