The Japanese-born Shigeko Kubota, who moved to New York in the early 1960s, was a pioneer of video art – she once likened the technology she adopted from the early 1970s to ‘a new paintbrush’. This display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York presents seven important video works from the 1970s and ’80s, among them Self-portrait (c. 1970–71), her earliest experiment with the new video synthesiser that had just been developed by Nam June Paik, her husband, and Shuya Abe. This is Kubota’s first US museum show in 25 years (21 August–1 January 2022). Find out more from MoMA’s website.
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Duchampiana: Nude Descending a Staircase (1976), Shigeko Kubota. Photo: John Wronn/2021 The Museum of Modern Art, Department of Imaging and Visual Resources; © 2021 Estate of Shigeko Kubota/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Self-portrait (still; 1976), Shigeko Kubota. The Museum of Modern Art, New York; © 2021 Estate of Shigeko Kubota / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Video Haiku–Hanging Piece (1981), Shigeko Kubota. Photo: Robert Haller; courtesy Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation; © 2021 Estate of Shigeko Kubota/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Video Haiku–Hanging Piece (detail with the artist pictured in the reflection; 1981), Shigeko Kubota. Photo: Robert Haller; courtesy Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation; © 2021 Estate of Shigeko Kubota/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY