The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (MOMAT), presents Anti-Action: Artist-Women’s Challenges and Responses in Postwar Japan. This landmark exhibition reexamines the creative achievements of postwar Japanese women artists through the lens of “anti-action”—a term proposed by art historian Izumi Nakajima to describe how female artists resisted and redefined the male-centered ideals of action, energy, and dominance that shaped 1950s and ’60s avant-garde art.
While Western movements such as Art Informel and Action Painting celebrated bold, physical expression, women artists in Japan often chose quieter, conceptual, or materially experimental approaches. Their works, once marginalized by critics, are now reconsidered as essential to Japan’s modern art history.
Around 120 works by 14 artists, including Kusama Yayoi, Tanaka Atsuko, and Fukushima Hideko will be present. Plus, the exhibition catalog will include essays by Nakajima and curators, as well as an interview with art historian Griselda Pollock, a leading authority in gender studies.
Information
Start: Dec 16th 2025 at 10:00am
End: Feb 8th 2026 at 5:00pm
The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (MOMAT)
3-1 Kitanomarukoen, Chiyoda-ku
￥Free
AloJapan.com