KATSURO YOSHIDA

Katsuro Yoshida (1943-99) focused on the creation of three dimensional works composed of materials like wood, iron sheets, stones and paper from 1968 to the 1970s, and exhibited in important shows of the late sixties and the seventiesthat presented the state of contemporary art in the post-war era such as: The 8th Contemporary Art Exhibition of Japan atTokyo Metropolitan Art Museum (1968); Trends in Contemporary A__rt at The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto(1969); and August 1970: Aspects of New Japanese Art, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (1970.) Around thesame time, he also began working on screenprints and photo etchings using the snapshots of landscapes and people,which led him to receive the Grand Prize at The 1st International Biennale Exhibition of Prints held at National Museum ofModern and Contemporary Art, Korea in Seoul (1970) and participate in The 7th Paris Youth Biennale at Parc Floral deParis (1971.) From the 1980s onwards, he began paintings and worked on a series titled Heat Haze whose imagery wasinspired by human body parts, as well as a hand-painted series titled Touching and other works. He exhibitedinexhaustible artistic interest that enabled him to continue his experiments in presenting a new world view until his deathin 1999.

Post-war Japanese art has been avidly studied in the West since the year 2000. This show will present the work titled Cut-off 18 which was included in Requiem for the Sun: The Art of Mono-ha (Blum & Poe / Gladstone Gallery, 2012,) animportant show that re-examined Mono-ha as part of the aforementioned endeavors. Also exhibited are the artist’s earlyscreenprints created using photography and some of his paintings. We hope that this show will give people an opportunityto get the idea of the subject of his pursuit carried out through both three dimensional and two dimensional expressions.

In conjunction with the exhibition, we will publish a research book written by Ms. Masami Yamamoto (Curator of Art, Funabashi City Board of Education). There is also going to be a special talk by Ms. Yamamoto and Mr. Itaru Hirano(Curator, The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama) on Saturday, April 28. This will be a rare opportunity to hear the two peoplethat have long engaged in the study of Yoshida Katsuro discuss the topic.