About this artwork
Mishima Kimiyo’s pop-infused paintings feature collaged pages from English-language newspapers, Life magazine, and Japanese advertisements. Fragment II juxtaposes images of Vietnamese families evacuating war-torn villages and images of consumerism: newspaper pages with stock market quotes, classified ads, and advertisements for watches and audio equipment, all heavily layered and partially painted over. Mishima insists that she responded to these images formally, rather than to their content; yet the cacophony of visual information points to the sociocultural and economic context of post–World War II Japan and to a stark contrast
between human conflict and exuberant consumerism in modern life. The gestural use of paint in Fragment II also demonstrates the relationship between Mishima and members of the Gutai Art Association, an avant-garde group of artists in Japan with whom she was affiliated early in her career.
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Status
- On View, Gallery 294
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Department
- Contemporary Art
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Artist
- Kimiyo Mishima
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Title
- Fragment II
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Date
- Made 1965
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Medium
- Mixed media on canvas
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Dimensions
- 193.5 × 130.5 cm (76.2 × 51.4 in.)
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Credit Line
- Through prior purchase from the Mary and Leigh Block Fund
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Reference Number
- 2017.147
Extended information about this artwork
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