Keiko Minami

was a Japanese artist, aquatint engraver, and poet. She is best known for her pictograph-like aquatints with a whimsical, childlike aesthetic.

Biography Keiko Minami was born in the Imizu District of Toyama Prefecture in 1911. She was orphaned at a young age and was raised along with her sisters by their uncle. Her grandmother, Setsuko was the younger sister of the scientist Jōkichi Takamine. Her father, Tatsuyoshi Minami graduated from the University of Tokyo Law School and was once in the faculty of law at the University of Tokyo. Her mother, Kiyo, was a poet who studied in the Department of Japanese Literature at Japan Women's University.

Minami expressed an early interest in the arts. She painted and wrote poetry in high school, and studied the art of children's stories under the Japanese novelist and poet Sakae Tsuboi. She attended the School of Fine Arts Tokyo (東京美術学校), now called the Tokyo University of the Arts (東京藝術大学), from 1927 until 1929. Between early 30s and mid-40s, Minami likely returned to and stayed in Toyama. She got married and had a son. She became a member of the Free Artist Association in 1955, and in 1956 her work Fūkei (風景, Landscape) was purchased by the French Ministry of Education. Girl with Green Birds (1973)

Books Minami, Keiko. Bonheur. Tokyo: Little More, Japan

Exhibitions Sources: 2017 Keiko Minami Copperplate Exhibition: Holding a Flower Basket, Musée Hamaguchi Yozo/Yamasa Collection 2019 Keiko Minami Exhibition: Koto, Koto. Kotori, Musée Hamaguchi Yozo/Yamasa Collection 2020 Where you can meet delicate colors beyond that tree: Keiko Minami Exhibition, Musée Hamaguchi Yozo/Yamasa Collection 2021 The Fairytale of Lines: Keiko Minami and Copperplate Painters, The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma 2021 Traces of Butterflies: Exhibition Commemorating the 110th Anniversary of Keiko Minami's Birth, Musée Hamaguchi Yozo/Yamasa Collection

Group Exhibition

1957-66 1st to 5th Tokyo International Print Biennale, Yomiuri Kaikan 1957 2nd Ljubljana International Print Biennale, Ljubljana Museum of Modern Art 1959 3rd Ljubljana International Print Biennale, Ljubljana Museum of Modern Art 1959 27th Japan Print Association Exhibition, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum 1961 Friedlaender·Hamaguchi·Minami Prints Exhibition, Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama 1961 6th Japan International Art Exhibition, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum 1961 Contemporary Japanese Print Exhibition, Kyoto City Museum of Art 1963 7th Japan International Art Exhibition, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum 1964 32nd Japan Print Association Exhibition, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum 1964 Postwar Contemporary Japanese Art Exhibition, Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Modern Art 1965 6th Ljubljana International Print Biennale, Ljubljana Museum of Modern Art 1965 8th Japan International Art Exhibition, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum 1965 33rd Japan Print Association Exhibition, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum 1965 Exhibition of Japanese Artists Overseas Europe and America, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo 1966 34th Japan Print Association Exhibition, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum 1966 100 Years of Prints from the Meiji Era to the Present, Osaka Nakanoshima Asahi Building Cultural Hall 1967 9th Japan International Art Exhibition, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum 1967 Modern Japanese Prints, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo 1971 Postwar Art Chronicle Exhibition, Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Modern Art 1972-73 Japanese Writers in Europe, The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto & The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo 1973 Modern Japanese Print Exhibition, Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Art 1974 Modern Japanese Print Exhibition, Nara Prefectural Museum of Art 1982 50th Japan Print Association Exhibition, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum 1983 Transforming Image 20th Century Japanese Prints, St. Louis Art Museum 1985 Graphic Art & Design Exhibition of Contemporary Japanese Art, Toyama Prefectural Museum of Modern Art 1985 Contemporary Print Trajectory Exhibition, Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art 1988 Contemporary Japanese Prints 1950–1980, Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Modern Art 1991 Minami Keiko & Aiko Miyawaki Exhibition, Takaoka Art Museum 1992 10 Copperplate Painters Exhibition, Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Modern Art 2003 Poetry and Encountering with Yozo Hamaguchi and Minami Keiko, Nerima Art Museum

Museum Collections & Galleries

Portland Art Museum The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo The National Museum of Art, Osaka Kaki Gallery Suiha Gallery