Kimiyo Mishima (1932 – June 19, 2024) was a Japanese contemporary artist, best known for creating highly realistic versions of "breakable printed matter" in ceramic such as newspapers, comic books and boxes out of clay. Mishima began her artistic career as a painter in the early 1960s, then started working in ceramics in 1971. At this time, she began to use the silk screen technique to print newspaper and ad poster images onto clay. Her use of manufactured objects shows parallels with the works of Claes Oldenburg and Andy Warhol, as well as postwar Japanese collectives Gutai and Dokuritsu Art Association.
Early life Mishima was born in 1932 in the Juso district, a downtown area of Osaka City. Her family owned a liquor store, so she grew up relatively well off.
Mishima took lessons in Nihon-Buyo, classical Japanese dance, but her teacher often scolded her for making up her choreography. She said she wanted to dance like Mercier Cunningham, the famous American modern dancer, "but my teacher would get angry. I realized that to dance, you need music and that if I wanted to do something alone, it could probably only be art."
As a child, Mishima was not one to play with dolls. Her father bought her several microscopes, and she often used them to look at her hair and insects. She would often crush bugs and put them under the microscope to observe.
In middle school, her homeroom teacher happened to be her art teacher and encouraged her to pursue art and draw things not taught in the art classroom. So her father bought her a set of painting materials, and she immersed herself in her painting from a young age.
After graduating high school, she had wanted to go to university to become a doctor, but her mother forced her into an early marriage in hopes that it would help her settle down. But she ran away to Tokyo from that marriage in about a year.
Artistic influences and career She eventually married Shigeji Mishima, who had followed her to Tokyo from Osaka. Shigeji was a family friend whose mother was the midwife of Mishima's mother. Mishima was encouraged to visit Shigeji from a young age because he was an artist. Mishima was reticent, but they eventually developed a reciprocating relationship through their art.
Shigeji was an artist who studied under Jiro Yoshihara, a painter deeply involved in the Gutai movement. Due to Shigeji's influence, Mishima's work shifted from figurative painting to abstraction.
Through Shigeji, Mishima interacted with other Japanese artists like Jiro Yoshihara, Takesada Matsutani, and Shuji Mukai. She was also old acquaintances with architect Tadao Ando and the dancer Toru Takemitsu. Although she was invited to join the Gutai group, she refused because she preferred to work alone and did not identify with the core Gutai artists from Osaka's well-off Ashiya area.
In the 1960s, she started making collages with newspapers, discarded waste papers from printing companies, and old movie posters. Mishima said that she didn't have much money at the time, so she turned her attention to these kinds of materials. She would use printed and other materials, such as a blanket that her husband's brother used as a soldier during World War II.
As the materials she used for her collages accumulated in her studio, she came upon the idea to make her iconic newspaper-shaped ceramics in the 1970s. At first, she had trouble making the clay thin enough to imitate the form of the newspaper. She got the idea to use a rolling pin when she saw an Udon-making demonstration. She had used silk screen techniques in her collages for years, which helped her develop a method to transfer the text of newspapers onto the ceramics. Mishima would choose articles or advertisements from various Japanese newspapers on topics that interested her. She often used cutouts from the New York Times or Playbills from Broadway shows that she went to during her time in New York, from 1986 to 1987, supported by a grant by the Rockefeller Grant. She was invited to join the Sodeisha ceramics movement, but she never considered herself a ceramicist, so she did not join.
She said, "I thought that if I changed the newspaper's paper into ceramics, it might express a sense of impending crisis or instability regarding 'information'." She said that she chose ceramics because of their brittle quality and newspapers because they symbolized the commodification of information. Her works seem to be a social commentary about the acceleration of consumption in the information age.
Death Mishima died on June 19, 2024, at the age of 91.
Selected solo exhibitions 2018Anne Mosseri-Marlio Galerie, Basel, CH2017Sokyo Gallery, Kyoto, JPMEM Gallery, Tokyo, JPGallery Yamaki Fine Art, Kobe, JP2016Taka Ishii Gallery, New York, USA2014Art Factory, Jonanjima, Tokyo, JP2013Gallery Yamaki Fine Arts, Kobe, JP2004Nii Gallery, Osaka, JPContemporary Art Museum, Ise, Mie, JP2001Muramatsu Gallery, Tokyo, JP1999INAX Gallery, Tokyo, JP1998Art Front Gallery, Tokyo, JP1992Kasahara Gallery, Osaka, JP1990INAX Gallery, Tokyo, Osaka, JPGallery Pusu, Tokyo, JP1989Muramatsu Gallery, Tokyo, JP1988Gallery 16, Kyoto, JP1985Gallery Ueda Warehouse, Tokyo, JP1980Claywork : From Traditional To Avangarde, Seibu Hall, Shiga, JP1974Minami Gallery, Tokyo, JP1972Muramatsu Gallery, Tokyo, JPImai Gallery, Osaka, JP1971Fujimi Gallery, Osaka, JP1970Gallery 16, Kyoto, JPGallery Ano, Osaka, JP1969Imabashi Gallery, Osaka, JP1968Gallery 16, Kyoto, JP1966Gallery 16, Kyoto, JP1964Gallery 16, Kyoto, JPGallery Ano, Osaka, JP
Selected group exhibits 2018The Superlative Artistry of Japan, Japan Foundation, Cologne, DE20172D Printers, Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts, Utsunomiya, JPPainting on the Edge: A historical survey, Gallery Stephan Friedman, London, UK2016CERAMIX, traveling exhibition at: Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, NL; La Maison Rouge, Paris, FR; Cité de la Céramique-Sèvres, FR2015Ancient to Modern – Japanese Contemporary Ceramics and their Sources,
San Antonio Museum of Art, TX, USAConversations: A 25th Anniversary Exhibition, Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA2014Currents: Japanese Contemporary Art, Christie's Hong KongAbstractions in Blue: Works from The Wise Collection, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, USA2012Breaking the Mold, The Salon: Art and Design Fair with Joan B Mirviss LTD.,
New York, NY2011Ceramica Viva: I Ceramisti Giapponesi Premiati a Faenza [Japanese awardees of
International Faenza Ceramic Festival, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Tokyo, JP2010This is not a book: Spreading of Book Art, Urawa Art Museum, Saitama and Fukui
City Art Museum, Fukui, JPThe Magic of Ceramics: Artistic Inspiration, Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Shiga
Newspapers, Kanda Nissho Memorial Museum of Art, Shikaoi, Hokkaido, JP2009Vingt-cinq ceramists Japonaises contemporaines, Le Musée National de Céramique, Sèvres, FRBreaking from Tradition Japanese Ceramics Today, Harvey/Meadows Gallery,
Aspen CO with Joan B Mirviss, LTD., New York, USATouch Fire: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics by Women Artists, Smith College
Museum of Art, Northampton, MA, USAWorld of Trick Art, Toyohashi City Museum of Art and History, Aichi and Takamatsu
City Museum of Art, Kagawa, JP2008Osaka Art Kaleidoscope 2008, Contemporary Art Center, Osaka, JP2007Breaking the Mold/ kata o yaburu. Joan B Mirviss, LTD. New York, USAVarious Aspects of the Avant-garde Ceramic Art, Museum of Modern
Ceramic Art, Gifu, JPHermandades Escultóricas México-Japón 2007, Museo MACAY, Mérida, Yucatán, MXDepicting Words in Art- Masterpieces from the Permanent Collection, Municipal Museum of Art Kyoto, JP2007-12Soaring Voices – Contemporary Japanese Women Ceramic Artists, The Shigaraki
Ceramic Cultural Park, Shiga. Exhibition traveled to New Otani Art Museum, Tokyo,
Japan; Le Musée National Céramique à Sèvres, Sèvres, France; Crocker Art
Museum, Sacramento, CA; The Katzen Arts Center at American University,
Washington, DC; The Crow Collection of Asian Art, Dallas, TX; Morikami Museum
and Japanese Gardens, Delray Beach, FL; The Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art,
University of Florida, Gainesville; Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe;
Western Gallery at Western Washington University, Bellingham; City Arts Center,
Oklahoma City, OK; Maui Arts and Cultural Center, Kahului, HI, USA2006The Quintessence of Modern Japanese Ceramics, Ibaraki Ceramic Art Museum.Contemporary Clay: Japanese Ceramics for the New Century, Japan Society,
New York, USATōji: Avant-Garde et Tradition de la Cèramique Japonaise, Musèe national de