Toshi Yoshida

1911-1995

Plancton

self-carved, self-printed woodblock print; titled on the bottom margin in penciled English, Plancton, and in kanji, hozon-yo (reserve), and pencil signed and dated Toshi Yoshida, 1962

oban tate-e 16 1/4 by 11 in., 41.2 by 27.9 cm

Oliver Statler quotes Toshi Yoshida regarding comparing the subjects of his work with those of his father: "My father loved the mountains...so I turned to the sea." Toshi painted a series of underwater scenes in oil, and then a group of paintings depicting microscopic organisms living in seawater. From the artist's perspective: "From these paintngs it was an easy - I suppose inevitable - step to abstraction."

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
National Museum of Asian Art, accession no. S2019.3.2116

(inv. no. 10-4356)

price: Sold