<b>COMPOSITION</b> / Chizuko Yoshida1954<b>SOLD</b></em>

Details

Before marrying Hodaka Yoshida in 1953, Chizuko was a serious artist who studied under Koshiro Onchi and Fumio Kitaoka and had a close association with Okamoto Taro, a leading avant-garde artist and critic. By the mid-1950s, Chizuko was working almost exclusively in abstraction in both oil painting and woodblock prints. After her marriage to Hodaka, the Yoshidas traveled around the world producing and exhibiting their artwork. Chizuko’s own work is a synthesis of a refined Japanese aesthetic underlying a variety of modern and contemporary international styles.

“Composition,” 1954, was a design Chizuko produced after her brief study with the Sosaku Hanga artist Koshiro Onchi. Like Onchi’s late work, this design is comprised of pure abstraction with objects inked and impressed into the paper. The assemblage is an interesting array of color and texture that help unify the composition. The work is thought-provoking, experimental, and whimsical, clearly showing the influence of Onchi. It is interesting to consider Onchi’s work, “Leaf and Clouds,” 1954, executed in the same year as Chizuko’s work. Onchi’s print utilizes found materials to assemble an abstract composition is a similar manner. Chizuko’s use of color animates her composition where Onchi’s is more introspective and contemplative.

Connoisseur's Note

“Composition,” 1954, is a unique monoprint that utilized found objects in the printing process. Due to the type of materials used and the spontaneous nature of the printing process, this work could not be duplicated. The print is in pristine condition, having never been framed or displayed for extended periods of time. The colors are in an excellent state of preservation, appearing as vivid today as they were the day the work was produced.