Atsuko Tanaka (1932–2005), born in Osaka, was a leading figure in Japan's postwar avant-garde. According to Moderna Museet's chronology, she entered the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art's art research institute in 1950 and later also studied art in Kyoto. In 1955, she joined the recently founded Gutai Art Association.

Gutai was one of Japan's most important postwar avant-garde groups. Rather than extending traditional painting's rules, its artists sought to begin from zero, redefining art through the body, sound, light, fabric, everyday objects, industrial materials and actions. Moderna Museet's account of Tanaka's exhibition likewise explains that, against the background of postwar Japan and the shadow of nuclear warfare, Gutai artists wanted to escape academic art and create art for a new era through everyday materials and radical experimentation.

Atsuko Tanaka’s best-known work is Electric Dress, created in 1956. Made from numerous colored light bulbs and electrical wires, the work was worn by the artist, as though turning her body into a glowing city, a circuit board, or a futuristic machine. Whitestone Gallery also notes that Tanaka joined Gutai in 1955 and that Electric Dress is one of her best-known works.

What makes her remarkable is that she freed “painting” from the canvas very early on. Rather than simply painting a picture, she made sound, electricity, light, the body, and time part of the work. Her practice thus connects painting, installation, performance, and technological art. It remains strikingly avant-garde today, almost as though she anticipated electronic art, wearable devices, and interactive art back in the 1950s.