Hodaka Yoshida

1926-1995

Beige Wall
(Beju no kabe)

zinc etching and woodblock print on paper; numbered, titled, signed and dated in pencil on the bottom margin, 7/15, Japanese title, Beju no kabe, Hodaka Yoshida '92, from a limited edition of 15 impressions, 1992

35 5/8 by 53 in., 90.5 by 134.5 cm

Hodaka Yoshida was the second son in a family of artists. His mother, Fujio Yoshida (1887-1987) was a painter (and later printmaker), his father, Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950) was an influential painter and pioneering self-publishing printmaker, and his older brother, Toshi Yoshida (1911-1995), was also a painter who went one step further and mastered the techniques of carving and printing woodblock prints. Although raised in a creative milieau, his father had intended Hodaka to become a scientist and had kept him on that academic track from the age of middle school. However, when the second world war intensified with the bombing of Tokyo, Hodaka took a leave of absence from the science program at Tokyo's Dai-ichi Higher School (the equivalent of a university), moved back home with his family, and started working at a war factory and publishing poetry. In early 1945 he began to teach himself to paint with oils late at night in his parent's attic, experimenting with abstract compositions. Initially his parents were unaware of this pursuit, although his brother did occaisonally join him, and later he shared his secret efforts with his mother Fujio. After three or four years he gained enough confidence to submit his work to various group shows, including the annual exhibition of the Taiheiyo (Pacific Painting Society)- an organization which his father helped establish and was a prominent member. Remarkably, through the support of some of the younger members, Hodaka's painting won a prize, which Hiroshi was asked to present, unbeknownst to him that the recipient was his own son. It was a decisive way for Hodaka to assert his intentions of becoming an artist, made all the more shocking for Hiroshi who strongly disapproved of abstract art.

In the early 1950s Hodaka began to explore producing woodblock prints, carving and printing the blocks himself in alignment with the creative print movement (sosaku hanga) which was finding new energy in the post-war period, and he met the painter Inoue Chizuko, who was also experimenting with abstract expressionism and interested in printmaking. Hodaka and Chizuko exhibited their first self-carved and self-printed woodblock prints together in December 1951, and following a prolific burst of creativity, the two married in the summer of 1953. In 1955 Hodaka accompanied his brother Toshi on a woodblock print teaching trip to the United States and then continued on his own to Mexico, where he found a new source of inspiration which he would draw upon (and revisit, physically and creatively) through several future phases of his artistic development.

This monumental print is from a group of six made by Hodaka for a 1992 exhibition held at the Wall Museum in Suwako, in Nagano Prefecture. Fully embracing the show's title, Walls in The Wall, Hodaka based the designs on photographs he had taken of various walls during his travels (a subject of interest to him for many years), developing a new photo-based zinc etching and color woodblock printed technique with a former student who had opened his own print shop in Tokyo. The zinc plate was produced from his photograph, and Hodaka carved eight to ten blocks for each wall print, from which multiple printings would overly the colors. Working together using a printing press, the zinc plate was printed with oils, and the woodblocks were printed with watercolor pigments, using the baren in some areas. The enormous sheets of kozo paper (the highest quality hosho paper) were special ordered from a papermaker, Mr. Iwano, who was located in Fukui prefecture. Due to the technical challenges of working in a monumental scale as well as the expense related to the use of kozo, Hodaka's ambitious 'Wall' prints were produced in very limited editions of only 15 numbered impressions.

Provenance:
Yoshida Family Collection

References:
Eugene M. Skibbe, Yoshida Hodaka: Magic, Artifact, and Art, in A Japanese Legacy: Four Generations of Yoshida Family Artists, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2002, pp. 110-120; p. 147, cat. nos. 105-107 (three prints from the Wall series)
Hodaka Yoshida: Walls of Wonder, Mitaka City Gallery of Art, 2019, Tatsuo Matsuyama, pp. 13-16; Ayomi Yoshida, pp. 116-118; Satoko Tomita, pp. 126-129; p. 104, cat. no. 110
Minneapolis Institute of Art, accession no. 2021.51

(inv. no. C-3928)

price: $9,000