Nonaka-Hill is pleased to present Saori (Madokoro) Akutagawa (1924 – 1966), a Centennial celebration of the artist’s birth, marking her first solo exhibition in the United States, spanning an extensive and multi-faceted career from 1955 - 1966. The exhibition opens February 24th and will be on view through April 20, 2024. An opening reception will be held for the artist on Saturday, February 24, from 4-8 pm. Trained in the arts, initially in music and vocals, in post-war Tokyo, Saori (Madokoro) Akutagawa turned her focus to painting, drawing and batik practices in the early 1950s. Making her first professional appearance as an artist in 1954 at the 6th Japan Independent Exhibition; a year later Akutagawa was feted with the newcomer award at Nika Association and effectively launched publicly, a rare and rapid rise for a woman even in burgeoning egalitarian post-war Japan. 1945 – 1955 saw radical and broad changes not just for women overall, but also for aspiring artists, as educational opportunities improved and non-membership, non-juried exhibitions were initiated by flourishing media conglomerates who sponsored and reviewed these presentations. Akutagawa was singled out among both critics and influential artists - Shuzo Takiguchi, Taro Okamoto, Art Life Magazine among others - throughout her career, and was the subject of several posthumous exhibitions and articles in Japan, upon her untimely death in 1966. The exhibition at Nonaka-Hill features several of the artist’s signature vivid drawings, late painting and unique dyed linens spanning the decade Akutagawa devoted herself to exercising, exhibiting and traveling as an artist. Recognized initially for her “Woman” series, it is curious to consider if, as in Rufino and Picasso, Akutagawa was paying attention to the 1950’s notoriety Willem de Kooning was earning for on the same subject. Akutagawa’s emotive, active, radically rendered women – conceptual, characterized – exude a profound insight that moves beyond per scripted formalism. The same can be said of her Kojiki (Japanese ancient chronicle) animated figures in landscapes and later minimalist abstractions. The late paintings to which she was firmly committed, present silhouettes that strain together to generate a tension of push-pull, an active figure ground exchange that aligns more demonstratively with the time-based actions of her contemporaries Yoko Ono, Yayoi Kusama and Atsuko Tanaka.