October 2, 2023
Space In-Between: Shizuko Yoshikawa and Josef Müller-Brockmann exhibition
Outline Prospectus■PurposeThis exhibition showcases the activities and work of the husband-and-wife couple of Josef
Müller-Brockmann (1914–1996), Switzerland’s best-known typographer, and his wife,
Japanese artist Shizuko Yoshikawa (1934–2019). The exhibition commemorates the 160thanniversary (in 2024) of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Switzerland andJapan, and is the first large-scale exhibition to feature either Yoshikawa or MüllerBrockmann in Japan.
The couple were both Zurich-based artists and teachers. After Müller-Brockmann’s death,
Yoshikawa remained in Zurich, where she worked as a painter until the end of her life. The
two met at the 1960 World Design Assembly in Tokyo. Yoshikawa, who had studied English
at Tsuda University, was taking part in the assembly as an interpreter. Inspired by thisglobal event, she moved to Zurich to study, and met Müller-Brockmann again there. Having
established a bond of trust between them, the couple married, and spent the rest of theirlives together while each breaking new ground as artists.
The purpose of this exhibition is to display both Müller-Brockmann’s superb structuraldesigns and Yoshikawa’s works of art, and expand awareness of this unparalleled example offruitful international collaboration between Switzerland and Japan.

■OverviewAs the first major exhibition of the work of both artists, this exhibition provides an overall
retrospective of Müller-Brockmann’s graphic designs and Yoshikawa’s paintings, sculptures,designs, and other works, categorized by decade and style.
The title, “Space In-Between,” carries several different meanings. The first refers to therelationship between Yoshikawa and Müller-Brockmann. The relationship between the twowas based on mutual respect between independent individuals. This exhibition is based on
the idea that their relationship with each other was not one of clinging dependency, but thateach was an individual both as a person and as an artist, and it was this that enabled them tolive such rich lives together. The inclusion of the word “space” in the title symbolizes therelationship of independence between the two. From the viewpoint of the distinctiveness of
their work, what is important in the grid system achieved in the works of Müller-Brockmannis the blank space on the page, and “space” also refers to this. The style of Yoshikawa’s
works moved from two-dimensional to three-dimensional, with spatiality as an importantcharacteristic, and the title is also a reference to the “space” of this spatiality. In a further
level of meaning, Yoshikawa and Müller-Brockmann were most active in the 1960s and1 / 6

1970s, when space exploration was at its peak in the Space Age symbolized by the Apollo 11
moon landing, in an era of expanding hopes and dreams for an uncharted new world not yet
visible from Earth. “Space” also refers to the astronomical space representative of this era.
The title thus incorporates multifaceted layers of meaning, and the exhibition has been
structured with these as key words.

■Exhibition Details
Because her studio was in Zurich, the majority of Shizuko Yoshikawa’s works are still
there, managed by the Shizuko Yoshikawa and Josef Müller-Brockmann (SYJMB)Foundation. The costs of this exhibition are being borne by the SYJMB Foundation, which isdue to send over approximately 100 of Yoshikawa’s works (paintings, sculptures, anddesigns). In FY 2022, the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka purchased approximately 60of Müller-Brockmann’s works for the museum’s collection from the SYJMB Foundation withfunding from the Administrative Agency for Osaka City Museums. With the addition of afurther five or so works by Müller-Brockmann from the Suntory Poster Collection depositedin the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka, the exhibition will be held in the 5th floor
galleries of the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka (a space of approximately 1700 m2).
Some other works by Müller-Brockmann, including designs, may also be borrowed from theSYJMB Foundation. Graphic works will be framed and displayed in general-use frames
owned by the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka, and drawings shipped from Zurich will
also be framed in this museum or displayed in the museum’s own display cases. Biographiesof the couple will also be displayed alongside their works, including a focus on the World
Design Assembly held in Tokyo in 1960 where they first met. Together with theinternational situation at the time and the historical background, the relationships between
Japan and Switzerland both before and after 1960 will also be brought into relief.
Related events will also be held during the exhibition to encourage a deeper
understanding of this project and increase its contemporary significance by addressing
highly topical issues. Specifically, famous designers, researchers, and other eminentauthorities working in Japan will be invited to attend a discussion meeting to deepen thediscussion of the contemporary relevance of Müller-Brockmann’s designs, and there will
also be a lecture given by Gabrielle Schaad, a researcher on Shizuko Yoshikawa who is theco-curator of this exhibition, and others by people with connections to Yoshikawa andMüller-Brockmann in both Japan and Switzerland.

■Event Overview
Venue: 5th floor galleries, Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka
Dates: Saturday, December 21, 2024 to Sunday, March 2, 2025 (62 days)
Anticipated attendance: 20,000 visitors
Admission: General 1,900 yen/High school and university students 1,600 yen/Elementary
2 / 6and junior high school students 500 yen (anticipated)
Organizers: Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka
Special Collaborators: Shizuko Yoshikawa and Josef Müller-Brockmann Foundation
Support: Embassy of Switzerland in Japan
Planning and Arrangements: Naoko Hirai (Senior curator, Nakanoshima Museum of Art,Osaka)
Co-Curator: Gabrielle Schaad (Research Associate of Zürcher Hochschule derKünste/Zurich University of the Arts.)
Event Collaborator: Miho Takechi (Director of mihoproject)
Advertising materials/exhibition catalog designer: Sebastian Fehr (Swiss designer. Residentin Tokyo)
Exhibition catalog: B5, 128 pages■Artists’ biographies
Josef Müller-Brockmann (1914–1996)
Switzerland’s best-known graphic designer and typographer. After studying at Zurich
University and the Kunstgewerbeschule Zürich (Zurich School of Arts and Crafts, nowZürcher Hochschule der Künste/Zurich University of the Arts), in 1936 he opened a design
studio in Zurich. He established the Grid System of graphic design using sans-serif typefaces,
which was highly influential both domestically and internationally. In 1957 he took up aposition teaching graphic design at the Kunstgewerbeschule Zürich (until 1960). During thisperiod, he also founded the design magazine Neue Grafik (1958–68). He attended the World
Design Conference in Tokyo in 1960, and returned to Japan in 1961 to give special lecturesat Naniwa Junior College (now Osaka University of Arts Junior College) and the Japan DesignSchool. In 1965 he founded a gallery for Constructivists in Rapperswill, an old castle town inthe suburbs of Zurich: founded to support “Constructivist and Concrete art,” where he held
exhibitions, made prints, and engaged in publishing. (It was initially called galerie 58, but wasrenamed galerie seestrasse in 1974 and remained open until 1990.) He was a guest lecturer atOsaka University of Arts, which possesses one of his sculptures, A Pillar of 7 Parts withGolden Cut (1974) (in the first-floor entrance hall of the Hideyo Tsukamoto Memorial Hall
Arts Information Center). He was married to Japanese painter Shizuko Yoshikawa, who hadstudied at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm (Ulm School of Design).
Shizuko Yoshikawa 1934–2019
Born in Omuta, Fukuoka Prefecture, Yoshikawa graduated in English at Tsuda University
in Tokyo and went on to study architecture and design at Tokyo University of Education (nowthe University of Tsukuba). In 1960 she worked for the Organizing Committee of the World
Design Conference, and was an interpreter during the conference. In 1961 she moved toGermany to study, majoring in visual communication at the Hichschule für Gestaltung Ulm
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(Ulm School of Design). There she met Josef Müller-Brockmann, whom she married in 1967.
While working to extend her husband’s design ideas, she was also independently active as agraphic designer and artist, holding a solo exhibition in Tokyo’s Nantenshi Gallery in 1978.
While based in Zurich for the rest of her life, she continued to be active internationallythrough both solo exhibitions and teaching, not just in Japan but also in New York, Bonn, andelsewhere. A monograph of her work was published in 2018 to coincide with her solo
exhibition in AXIS Space Tokyo. She died in 2019.

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■Artwork captions
Josef Müller-Brockmann

02
01

03
04

Artwork captions
01 Juni-Festwochen concert, Zurich, 1951. Silkscreen on paper, 100  70.2 cm. 02
Musica Viva, 1957. Silkscreen on paper, 128.3  90.8 cm. 03 Musica Viva, 1961.
silkscreen on paper, 128.3  90.8 cm. 04 Musica Viva, 1970. Silkscreen on paper, 128.3
 90.8 cm.
*All in the collection of the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka. ©Museum fürGestaltung Zürich, Switzerland

5 / 6Shizuko Yoshikawa

050706

Artwork captions
05 Untitled, 1972–1975. Acrylic on wood, 50  50  3.8 cm. 06 COLOR SHADOW NO.
86, 1979–1980. Lacquer and acrylic on polyester, 100  75 6 cm. 07 m432 ‘cosmic fabric’– radiant – 2, 1991–1993. Tempera and acrylic on canvas, diameter 150 cm. *All copyrightand courtesy of the Shizuko Yoshikawa and Josef Müller-Brockmann Foundation.

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