Hawk Woman

"Hawk Woman" from 1958 combines Munakata's two great figure subjects — the bird and the female form — in a hybrid image that recalls the tengu (half-human, half-bird supernatural beings) of Japanese mythology. The hawk woman carries both the fierce, aerial energy of the predatory bird and the contained power of the female figure as Munakata characterized her across his career. The combination creates a creature of concentrated force: neither entirely human nor entirely animal, but existing at the boundary where the mythological lives.