Space In-Between: Shizuko Yoshikawa and Josef Müller-Brockmann
2024-12-21 – 2025-03-02
Outline
The couple were both Zurich-based artists and teachers. After Müller-Brockmann’s death, Yoshikawa remained in Zurich, where she worked as a painter until the end of her life. The two met at the 1960 World Design Assembly in Tokyo. Yoshikawa, who had studied English at Tsuda University, was taking part in the assembly as an interpreter. Inspired by this global event, she moved to Zurich to study, and met Müller-Brockmann again there. Having established a bond of trust between them, the couple married, and spent the rest of their lives together while each breaking new ground as artists.
The purpose of this exhibition is to display both Müller-Brockmann’s superb structural designs and Yoshikawa’s works of art, and expand awareness of this unparalleled example of fruitful international collaboration between Switzerland and Japan.
in Zurich, c. 1965
Copyright and courtesy of the Shizuko Yoshikawa and Josef Müller-Brockmann Foundation
Shizuko YOSHIKAWA(1934–2019)
A Japanese artist who lived most of her life in Switzerland as a well-educated and strong-willed woman. She married Josef Müller-Brockmann and based her artistic career in Zurich. After Müller-Brockmann’s death, she felt a great sense of loss and began creating paintings with the theme of the sun, and in her later years, she produced works with the theme of the Silk Road, further developing her art and deviating from concrete traditions backed by modern orthodoxies. The paintings, sculptures, and prints she created are located in Zurich.
Josef Müller-BROCKMANN(1914–1996)
He had been to Japan several times from the 1960s to the 1980s. While deepening his friendships with Japanese designers such as Yusaku Kamekura, he also contributed to Japanese design education by teaching at design schools and art universities. The “grid system” which he named summarizing the methodology for typesetting and composition on paper, continues to have a great influence to this day as a monumental theory in the history of design. He was known as an excellent educator and poster designer, at the same time, his warm personality towards all kind of people has been passed down to this day.
Information about the Exhibition
Dates | December 21, 2024 – March 2, 2025 Closed on Mondays, December 31, January 1, 14, February 25 *Open on January 13, February 24 |
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Opening hours | 10:00 – 17:00 (last entry 16:30) |
Venue | Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka 5F Galleries |
Organizer | Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka |
Special cooperation | Shizuko Yoshikawa and Josef Müller-Brockmann Foundation |
Support | Embassy of Switzerland / Vitality.Swiss |
Grants | Tadao Ando Cultural Foundation |
Inquiries | Osaka City General Call Center 06-4301-7285 Hours: 8:00 – 21:00 (365 days) |
Works
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Shizuko Yoshikawa
m434 cosmische gewebe -strahlend 3
1991/1993, Shizuko Yoshikawa and Josef Müller-Brockmann Foundation
Copyright and courtesy of the Shizuko Yoshikawa and Josef Müller-Brockmann Foundation -
Josef Müller-Brockmann
Zurich Tonhalle, 4th extra concert, Beethoven Concert Poster
1955
©Museum für Gestaltung Zurich, Switzerland -
Shizuko Yoshikawa
z606 a roma
1998, Shizuko Yoshikawa and Josef Müller-Brockmann Foundation
Copyright and courtesy of the Shizuko Yoshikawa and Josef Müller-Brockmann Foundation -
Shizuko Yoshikawa
m780 lebensplus 16
2011/2012, Shizuko Yoshikawa and Josef Müller-Brockmann Foundation
Copyright and courtesy of the Shizuko Yoshikawa and Josef Müller-Brockmann Foundation -
Josef Müller-Brockmann
Swiss Automobile Club “Watch that Child!” Campaign Poster
1953, Suntory Poster Collection (deposited in Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka
©Museum für Gestaltung Zurich, Switzerland -
Josef Müller-Brockmann
Musica Viva 1972
1972, Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka
©Museum für Gestaltung Zurich, Switzerland