The Artistic Journey of Yasuo Kuniyoshi

Media - 1986.6.50 - SAAM-1986.6.50_3 - 135165

Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Strong Woman and Child, 1925

The Smithsonian American Art Museum is organizing a major exhibition about Yasuo Kuniyoshi (18891953), a preeminent 20th century modernist whose talents and contributions rivaled those of his contemporaries including Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keeffe and Stuart Davis.

Description

Kuniyoshi emigrated to America from Japan as a teenager, rising to prominence in the New York art world during the 1920s to become one of the most esteemed artists in America between the two world wars. He drew on American folk art, Japanese design and iconography and European modernism to create a distinctive visual style. Kuniyoshi defined himself as an American artist while at the same time remaining very aware that his Japanese origins played an important role in his identity and artistic practices.

His inventive, humorous early works often included subtle color harmonies, simplified shapes, oddly proportioned figures and an eccentric handling of space and scale. His work became more sensuous and worldly after two long stays in Paris, as he painted moody, reflective women and still lifes with unusual objects.

Kuniyoshi was thoroughly integrated into American life and the art world, but immigration law prevented him from becoming an American citizen. Classified an “enemy alien” after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he remained steadfastly on the side of his adopted country during the painful war years, working with the Office of War Information to create artworks indicting Japanese atrocities. After the war, Kuniyoshi developed a compelling late style, with bitter subjects and paradoxically bright colors.

The Artistic Journey of Yasuo Kuniyoshi is the first comprehensive overview of his work by a U.S. museum in more than 65 years. The exhibition traces Kuniyoshi’s career though 66 of his finest paintings and drawings, chosen from leading public and private collections in America and Japan. The guest curator is the leading Kuniyoshi scholar Tom Wolf, professor of art history at Bard College. Joann Moser, deputy chief curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, is co-curator.

Visiting Information

April 3, 2015 August 30, 2015
Open Daily, 11:30 a.m.–7:00 p.m
Free Admission

Publications

KuniyoshiCover_500.jpg
The Artistic Journey of Yasuo Kuniyoshi
Painter, photographer, and printmaker Yasuo Kuniyoshi immigrated to the United States from Japan in 1906 and began a journey through New York City, Europe, and Japan that forged his unique painting style. In The Artistic Journey of Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Tom Wolf charts the artist's life and career through sixty-six of the artist's best paintings and drawings. What emerges is a richly complex portrait of an artist navigating the social, cultural, and political challenges of his adopted homeland.

Videos

Credit

The Artistic Journey of Yasuo Kuniyoshi is organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

American Honda Motor Co., Inc., provided leadership support for the exhibition.

We are especially grateful to Mr. Soichiro Fukutake for his major support of the book and exhibition, for his generosity in lending artworks from the Fukutake Collection in Okayama, and for his long advocacy for this artist.

Additional generous contributions have been provided by: All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd., E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, Fukutake Foundation, Raymond J. and Margaret Horowitz Endowment, The Japan Foundation, Japan-United States Friendship Commission, Peter and Paula Lunder, Friends of Franklin Riehlman, Sara Roby Foundation, Share Fund, and Yasuda Fine Arts Inc.

SAAM Stories

Splash Image - Kuniyoshi as Organizer
06/30/2015
This is the third and final blog post by the Archives of American Art's Mary Savig and Jason Stieber focused on the life of the artist Yasuo Kuniyoshi. The exhibition Artist Teacher Organizer: Yasuo Kuniyoshi in the Archives of American Art is on view in the Lawrence A. Fleischman Gallery, and is organized in conjunction with The Artistic Journey of Yasuo Kuniyoshi on view at at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
SAAM Staff
Blog Editor
Kuniyoshi teaching at Art Student League
06/09/2015
This is the second in a series of guest blog posts by the Archives of American Art's Mary Savig and Jason Stieber focused on the life of the artist Yasuo Kuniyoshi.
SAAM Staff
Blog Editor
Splash Image - Yasuo Kuniyoshi as Artist
05/26/2015
This is the first in a series of guest blog posts by the Archives of American Art's Mary Savig and Jason Stieber focused on the life of the artist Yasuo Kuniyoshi. The exhibition Artist Teacher Organizer: Yasuo Kuniyoshi in the Archives of American Art is on view in the Lawrence A. Fleischman Gallery, and is organized in conjunction with The Artistic Journey of Yasuo Kuniyoshi on view at at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
SAAM Staff
Blog Editor

Artists

Media - J0001791_1b.jpg - 89295
Yasuo Kuniyoshi
born Okayama, Japan 1889-died New York City 1953

Painter and photographer of art. His languid women in repose from the 1930s are significant, but he also painted still lifes and landscapes.