Minoru Kawabata
Born in Tokyo in 1911, Minoru Kawabata hailed from a distinguished lineage of Japanese painters—his grandfather Gyokushō Kawabata and his father Shigeshō Kawabata were both accomplished Nihonga artists. Kawabata studied oil painting under Fujishima Takeji at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts (now Tokyo University of the Arts). In 1939, he moved to Paris, but with the outbreak of World War II, relocated to New York and returned to Japan via Italy in 1941. Despite wartime disruptions, he remained devoted to the exploration of abstract expression. In 1953, he co-founded the Japan Abstract Art Club with Jirō Yoshihara and Chōnan Yamaguchi, and in 1956 participated in the international exhibition Today’s Art of the World curated by Michel Tapié, gaining recognition both domestically and abroad.
In 1958, Kawabata returned to the United States and based himself in New York. There, he caught the attention of gallerist Betty Parsons, a central figure in Abstract Expressionism, who hosted his first solo show at her gallery in 1960. Over the next two decades, he held eleven solo exhibitions at the Parsons Gallery, emerging as a central member of the New York School alongside figures like Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. Kawabata also engaged with other Japanese artists active in the U.S., including Yayoi Kusama and Kenzo Okada, and represented Japan at the 1962 Venice Biennale with six works. His work received increasing recognition in both Japan and the U.S., culminating in major solo exhibitions at the Everson Museum of Art (New York, 1974) and the Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Modern Art (Japan, 1975). In 1992, retrospectives were held at the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto and the Ohara Museum of Art, followed by the Minoru Kawabata: Tokyo—New York exhibition at the Yokosuka Museum of Art in 2011, marking the tenth anniversary of his death and centennial of his birth.
While his early works in the 1950s bore the influence of Cubism through geometric abstraction, his later New York period after 1958 saw a shift toward calligraphic brushwork and improvisational dynamism. In the 1960s, he developed a powerful abstract style exemplified in series such as Form in~ and Form Unity, characterized by all-over compositions of color fields and forms. From the 1980s onward, his style evolved toward structured and vivid compositions incorporating motifs such as “rectangles,” “gates,” and “robes.”
Kawabata aimed to crystallize psychological landscapes into visual language. His canvases—marked by symbolic forms emerging from dense color fields and expressive contrasts of hue—resonated with Abstract Expressionism and Color Field painting, yet remained distinctly his own through a synthesis of Eastern spirituality and formal sensitivity. As a pioneering figure who expanded postwar Japanese abstraction onto the international stage, his legacy continues to be highly regarded today.
Selected Collections :
Artizon Museum, Itabashi Art Museum, The Wolu Museum of Art, Ohara Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art Kamakura & Hayama, The National Museum of Modern Art Kyoto, The Museum of Fine Arts Gifu, Kure Municipal Museum of Art, The National Museum of Art Osaka, Sakura Art Museum, Takamatsu Art Museum, Tama Art University Museum, Chiba City Museum of Art, The University Art Museum of Tokyo University of the Arts, The National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo, The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Yokosuka Museum of Art, Yokohama Museum of Art, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, São Paulo Museum of Modern Art, Elder Gallery (Wesleyan University), Everson Museum of Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Newark Museum of Art
Biography :
- 1911
- Born in Tokyo, Japan. His father, Shigeaki Kawabata, is a Japanese painter. His grandfather, Gyokusho Kawabata, is a member of the Maruyama School.
- 1934
- Graduated from Tokyo School of Fine Arts, Japan.
- 1939
- Studied in Paris, Italy and New York.
- 1942
- Held one-man-exhibition in the Mitsukoshi Ginza and then received a prize of Sabun.
- 1950
- Became a professor of Art at Tama Art University, Tokyo.
- 1951
- Exhibited works in The 3rd Salon des Indépendants and The 1st São Paulo Art Biennial. Held one-man-exhibition in the Shiseido Gallery.
- 1953
- Formed “The Japan Abstraction Art Club” with Jiro Yoshiwara, Masanari Murai and Takeo Yamaguchi, then joined it.
- 1955
- Exhibited works in the 18th International Watercolor Biennale (The Brooklyn Museum, New York) with Taro Okamoto, Masanari Murai, Yuki Katsura and Yayoi Kusama.
- 1956
- Held one-man-exhibition at the Matsuya Ginza. Exhibited works in “Exhibition of Contemporary Art in the World” (Takashimaya, Tokyo)
- 1958
- Left Japan for United States. Received an individual honor prize of The 2nd Guggenheim International Contemporary Art Exhibition of Japan. Exhibited works in The Pittsburgh International Contemporary Painting and Sculpture. Held one-man-exhibition at the Matsuya Ginza.
- 1959
- Received a prize in the 5th São Paulo Art Biennial. Received an honor prize of the 11th Premio Lissone(Milano) . Became a professor at the New School for Social Research, New York.
- 1960
- Exhibited works in The Guggenheim International. Exhibited works in The Japanese Abstract Paintings (The Gres Gallery, Washington, D.C.) with Kenzo Okada, Yuki Katsura, Yayoi Kusama, Takeo Yamaguchi and Toshinobu Onosato. Held one-man-exhibition at the Betty Parsons Gallery, NewYork. (10 times until 1982.)
- 1961
- Held one-man-exhibition at the Apollinaire Gallery, Milano. Exhibited works in the 12th Premio Lissone,the Carnegie International and the Guggenheim international.
- 1962
- Exhibited works in “The Four Painters in the U.S.” (The Molton Gallery, London), “The Contemporary Paintings” (Yale University Art Gallery), the Venice Biennale Exhibition and the Guggenheim International.
- 1963
- Received a prize of Bridgestone Museum of Art at the 7th Japan International Art Exhibition. Exhibited works in The New Experiments in Art (The Cordoba Museum of Fine Arts), The Review of the Season, The Guggenheim International “and The University of Colorado Art Exhibition. Held one-man-exhibition at Tokyo Gallery.
- 1965
- Exhibited works in “The Japanese Artists in Europe and the U.S.” (the National Museum of Modern Art, Kanagawa) , “The New Japanese painting and Sculpture” (San Francisco Museum of Art and The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
- 1966
- Exhibited works in “The 150 years of Modern Japanese European aPintings” (The Museum of Modern Art , Kanagawa), “The international Exhibition” (Pilot Galleries, Lausanne) and The University of Colorado At rExhibition.
- 1969
- Exhibited works in the Contemporary Painting and Sculpture (The Bristol Art Museum, Rhode Island), the Phillips Collection Exhibition (Washington, D.C.).
- 1973
- Exhibited works in The Japanese Artists in U.S.A. (The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto & Tokyo, Japan) and The Development of Postwar Japanese Art: Abstract and Non-figurative (The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan)
- 1974
- Held one-man-exhibition at the Everson Museum, New York.
- 1975
- Held one-man- exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art in Kanagawa and exhibited 80 works and 59 drawings.
- 1978
- Held one-man-exhibition at Tokyo Gallery., Tokyo.
- 1983
- Group Exhibition at the Annely Juda Gallery in London. Held one-man-exhibition in the Tokyo Gallery and the Jack Tilton Gallery (New York)
- 1992
- The exhibition of “Minoru Kawabata Proudly Independent Tracks 35 years in the U.S.”