Description

Toko Shinoda, Stream. Lithograph with hand-painting. In black, gray, and red. Number 20 of a small, limited edition of 28, circa 1982. Titled, signed, and numbered by the artist in pencil. 18.5 inches x 14.5 inches. Matted with archival materials. Fine condition.

Toko Shinoda (1913 – 2021) was one of Japan’s Living National Treasures, the only Japanese artist to be honored on a postage stamp during her lifetime. Conveying a sense of Japan in visual terms, Shinoda combined her characteristic black and white ink brush strokes with lithography, juxtaposing her abstract calligraphy onto the subtle shadings of a lithograph. Her art echos that of Fritz Kline and Pierre Soulages. Born in Manchuria, Toko Shinoda said in an interview for Time, August 1, 1983, “People born in foreign places are very free in their thinking, not restricted.” She attributes her mother’s assertive personality as a seminal influence. Studying calligraphy from the age of six, Shinoda dutifully copied and memorized the accepted models. Her father’s insistence that she learn calligraphy opened to her one of the few fields open to women, which included onnade – women’s writing. Using the calligraphic symbol for a noun, she added more lines to better create a more forceful impression of the place described by a name.

Toko Shinoda’ work is found at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Israeli Haifa Japanese Art Museum, the Hague National Museum and at the Art Institute of Chicago.

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Toko Shinoda BEYOND Lithograph with Hand Painting

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Nakao Yoshitaka Woodblock Print NUDE 1960