Toshi Yoshida

1911-1995

No. 8

self-carved, self-printed woodblock print; titled, signed, and dated in penciled English on the bottom margin, No. 8, Toshi Yoshida, 1952

oban tate-e 16 1/4 by 11 in., 41.4 by 28 cm

In 1925 when Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950) established his own studio to self-publish woodblock prints, fifteen-year old Toshi joined the atelier, learning all aspects of the process from the professional carvers and printers who worked for and with the elder Yoshida. As the eldest son, Toshi was expected to follow in his father's footsteps as a professional artist and work in the family business, with the understanding that he wold inherit all of the associated responsibilities as head of the family. Blessed both with talent and artistic legacy, but likewise burdened by both, Toshi adhered to, and was restrained by, his father's vision. While he produced prints in the which echoed Hiroshi's style, he pursued his own interests with his paintings, the subjects veering fom the landscapes of his father towards animals and and the ocean, sometimes depicting extreme close-ups of marine subjects.

Following the sudden passing of Hiroshi in 1950, Toshi continued to produce prints in his father's style, likely out of economic necessity in the post-war period. However, in 1952, ecouraged by his brother Hodaka's sucesses with abstract painting, Toshi began to produce a series of abstract prints, each with a numbered title from No. 1 through No. 12. Half of the designs were figural white line prints, the other half, including this work, were near-psychedelic abstractions of color.

References:
Oliver Statler, Modern Japanese Prints: An Art Reborn, 1959, pp.168-169
Eugene M. Skibbe, Yoshida Toshi 1911-1999: Diversity, Change, and Continuity in the Yoshida Art Tradition, Andon 53,, Society for Japanese Arts, 1996, pp. 5-14
Kendall H. Brown, Yoshida Toshi: The Nature of Tranquility, in, A Japanese Legacy: Four Generations of Yoshida Family Artists, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2002, pp. 72-80

(inv. no. 10-4352)

price: Sold