Yuki Ogura, pioneering feminist of Japanese modernism

Yuki Ogura, “Portrait of a Painter” (1962) (all images courtesy of Shiga Museum of Art)

SHIGA, Japan — Yuki Ogura’s 1962 “Portrait of a Painter” offers a rare glimpse into the artist’s psyche. She looks at the viewer and draws on a pad of paper, as if she were observing us on the spot. This same sketchbook, preserved since the artist’s death in 2000, reveals that Ogura repeated the composition nearly 20 times before painting it. Although she depicts herself with a gloomy expression in the drawings, she has a knowing, confident, and youthful air in the painting, and an almost mischievous smile. Something shifted for her here: whether she’s representing herself or something else, making an image clearly brings her a sense of completion and even joy.

The piece is the only self-portrait in Yuki Ogura and the painters of the Japan Art Institute: Taikan Yokoyama, Shunso Hishida, Yukihiko Yasuda, Seison Maeda, Gyoshu Hayami and others at the Shiga Museum of Art. Curated by Hatsuki Tano, the exhibition features more than 90 works by Ogura and the artists who influenced her and later worked alongside her in the Nihon Bijutsuin, or Japan Art Institute (JAI), a group originally founded in Tokyo in 1898. Ogura was a rare female artist in a male-dominated organization and field, and it is fascinating to see how she forged her own path throughout a life spanning the entire 20th century.

Ogura was born in 1895 in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture. She studied Japanese and classic literature at what is now Nara Women’s University, although she spent much of her college years drawing. After graduating in 1917, she began working as an elementary and high school teacher, work she would continue in Kyoto, Nagoya, and Yokohama for the next 22 years. However, the desire to make art attracted Ogura, and in 1920 she began studying painting with Yukihiko Yasuda, a JAI artist based in Ōiso.

Yasuda’s works presented in the exhibition allow us to appreciate how Ogura differentiated herself from her mentor and her male peers. Paintings like “Nukada-no-okimi at Asuka in the Spring”, done by Yasuda two years after Ogura’s 1962 animated self-portrait, often include historical figures with generalized features in static poses. On the other hand, Ogura paints mainly from nature. Although her art is rooted in the traditions of Japanese painting, her images of contemporary women and girls – often modeled by the artist’s family members and friends – convey the complexity and eccentricity of real people and breathable.

“Sisters” (1970) is an example. Although painted in a light, almost cartoonish style, the girls’ sloping skirts draw our attention to the older sister’s questioning and serious gaze, a reminder of the responsibilities a brother can take on even at this young age. In “A Dancer” (1969), portraying a Maiko or apprentice Geishathe young woman’s splendid clothes and hairpins coexist with her ambivalent expression, which perhaps signals a certain weariness with the night that preceded or behind her.

Another difference between Ogura and his JAI peers is his receptivity to Western influences. Picasso and Matisse’s first Japanese exhibitions in 1951 offered artists the opportunity to experience first-hand works of art they had previously only seen in books, photos and magazines. This year also seems to mark a change in the artist’s approach: if she continued to work on paper, her delicate and soft figures and flowers became more dynamic and heavy subjects painted with a bolder and more sinuous. “Family” (1958), a large-scale painting of a man and woman in a Western-style room, is rendered with dark, confident lines over solid, unblended strokes of paint, and is particularly striking for its experimental feel.

Yuki Ogura, “A Dancer” (1969); The National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto

While specializing in the depiction of women, Ogura’s favorite genre – and the one she pursued until her final days – was perhaps still life. Her works were inspired by her meditation and spiritual practice – she later married a Zen priest. Works like ‘Grape’ (1959), with its stark composition and color, are imbued with an essential vitality, and the strewn peppers and clustered greens on the counters of ‘Kitchen Goods’ (1980) remind us that for Ogura , who spent many years as her mother’s nurse, the subjects of her paintings were not purely aesthetic; they were also the raw materials of work, care and sustenance.

Ogura’s exceptional skill and perseverance were recognized during his lifetime. Beyond her frequent exhibitions and awards, she was made a member of JHA in 1928, became its first female member in 1932, and served as director of the organization in 1978. Two years later, she became the second woman painter to receive the Order of Cultural Merit. Despite the accolades, she continued to work with a quiet sense of exploration and innovation. She is a master colorist whose works subtly address personal and social issues. Humble and incredibly human, even her photos of flowers and fruits are filled with an undeniable sense of life. His art is worth seeing and celebrating today.