Yoshida “Evolution” Exhibition

Evolution: The Yoshida Family and Friends

This show represents the first stage in a semester-long project for the students of Arts of Japan.  It is centered around the works of Hiroshi Yoshida, his two sons Toshi and Hodaka, and two of Toshi’s students Micah Schwaberow and Noboru Sawai. The goal is to highlight how the woodblock print as a mode of artistic expression in Japan continued to evolve in the 20th century.

Hiroshi Yoshida [1876-1950] was one of several artists who took the medium of the woodblock print to a new level.  Unlike earlier famous woodblock print artists who worked with carvers, printers and publishers collaboratively when creating prints, Hiroshi Yoshida and others believed that the process of creating a print – designing, carving, and printing – should all be performed by the artist himself.  This approach was then passed on by Hiroshi to his sons, Toshi Yoshida [1911-1995] and Hodaka Yoshida [1926-1995], both of whom became well respected printmakers in their own right.  Through the two sons, the Yoshida tradition of printmaking continued to flourish and extend beyond the borders of Japan, receiving external influences from the art of the West as well as influencing artists in the West.  Evolution: The Yoshida Family and Friends is one way of seeing how these artists connected the unique aspects of Japanese culture and artistic tradition with cultural elements and techniques from the differing societies they encountered.

Karil Kucera, Luce Asst Professor of East Asian Art

Click the poster to enter.

Evolution: Yoshida and Friends

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