Kikue Miyatake was born in Kurashiki (Japan) in 1954. An award-winning artist, her paintings have been exhibited worldwide. She graduated in law in Tokyo in 1978. The only Japanese artist to contribute to the East Side Gallery, she painted the abstract work “Paradise out of the Darkness”.
Kikue Miyatake was born in Kurashiki (Japan) in 1954 and today lives in Japan. She has won many awards and her abstract paintings have been exhibited all over the world. She completed a law degree at the private Chūō University in Tokyo in 1978. Miyatake trained as an expressionist painter in New York. Her works, which often focus on pivotal events in politics or society, were first exhibited in Germany in 1988. Her paintings are held by various museums.
The blue ring in Kikue Miyatake’s Wall painting “Paradise out of the Darkness” symbolises the combined strength of the two German nations. The areas of colour stand for a “blossoming rhythm of love” and the trail of grey for the Berlin Wall. Miyatake integrated a streetlight on the pavement into her painting and added the words “Safe art from violence” in 1990. Later she changed the text to “All you need is hope” and “Coexist”. To the artist, hope is the key to the future. The Wall section with her painting on was moved to the park behind the East Side Gallery during construction work in 1997.
In the podcast series “Feelings for the Future 1990: Stories about the Wall Art at the East Side Gallery,” Kikue Miyatake tells the stories behind her artwork.
Funded by the Federal Foundation for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship, 2020