Kuniyoshi Yasuo

Kuniyoshi Yasuo

Kuniyoshi Yasuo ( Japanese 国 吉 康 雄 ; born September 1, 1889 in Okayama , † May 14, 1953 in New York City ) was a Japanese painter. He spent most of his life in the United States.

Life

Kuniyoshi Yasuo attended the Department of Fabric Dyeing of the Prefecture Technical School ( 岡山 県 立 工業 学校 ) in Okayama in 1906 , but left the same year without a degree and went to the United States at 17 . He first studied at the art school in Los Angeles , then went to New York City in 1910 . There he became a member of the Art Student's League and continued studying.

Kuniyoshi had his first exhibition in 1922 at Daniel Gallery, New York, after which he gradually became known. In 1929 it was shown in the exhibition "Nineteen Living America Artists" at the Museum of Modern Art . He exhibited regularly from the 1930s and won a number of prizes. In 1931 he stayed for a short time in Japan for exhibitions in Tokyo and Osaka .

Back in the United States, he became Vice President of the America Artists 'Congress and first President of the Artists' Equity Association. During the Pacific War he publicly opposed Japanese militarism and despite being a Japanese citizen he got through the war without being interned. In 1948 it was shown in an exceptionally large exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art . At the 1952 Venice Biennale he was represented with pictures as one of the representatives of the USA. Since 1949 he was an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters .

To his pictures

His early works show a fantastic style. In 1925 and 1938 Kunoyoshi traveled through Europe, after which his pictures got a more realistic tone. He painted women, landscapes and still lifes, showing his social commitment mixed with a touch of sadness. He later reverted to a more fantastic style.

In Japan there is an important collection of Kuniyoshi's works, which the bookseller and entrepreneur Fukutake Tetsuhiko (1915–1986) created.

photos

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  Milking girl, 1922

• 

  Woman in the circus, 1931

Remarks

literature

• Japan Foundation (Ed.): Japanese Painting in the Western Style, 19th and 20th Centuries. Exhibition catalog, Cologne, 1985.
• National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto (ed.): Kuniyoshi Yasuo . In: Kyoto no Nihonga 1910–1930. Kyoto, 1986. ISBN 4-87642-117-X .
• Tazawa, Yutaka: Kuniyoshi Yasuo . In: Biographical Dictionary of Japanese Art. Kodansha International, 1981. ISBN 0-87011-488-3 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Honorary Members: Yasuo Kuniyoshi. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed March 13, 2019 . 

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Kuniyoshi is the family name, Yasuo the first name.