Aspiration

Artist Shinoda Toko (Japanese, born 1913)

Date1999

Mediumlithograph on russet color paper; hand-applied gold

Dimensions72.7 x 53 cm (28 5/8 x 20 7/8 in.)

ClassificationsPrints

Credit LineHarriet B. Bancroft Fund

Terms

Object number2003.1

DescriptionAbstracted character: tsuki (moon)
Label TextSHINODA, Toko (b. 1913) Aspirations 1999 Ed. 28/38 Signed Toko Shinoda Lithograph with hand-applied gold Harriet B. Bancroft Fund, 2003.1 Shinoda Toko was born in Dairen, Manchuria, as the fifth of seven children. Her father managed a tobacco factory but also devoted himself to Chinese calligraphy and classics. Shinoda spent time in New York, influencing artists such as Franz Kline of the Abstract Expressionist Movement, and even now she continues to express her love of sumi ink that she believes can reveal an endless range of blacks and grays. Although Shinoda began her career as a calligrapher, she has become one of Japan's most preeminent painters and printmakers. Her large-scale paintings and murals, for example, are found in a dining room at the imperial palace and at Zojo-ji temple in Tokyo. Shinoda is especially known for her lithographs with elegant, abstract calligraphy. The exhibited Aspirations duplicates her bold, spontaneous, overlapping strokes, both wet and dry, placing them against a russet, "azuki-bean-colored" paper. Shinoda does not print her own lithographs but she supervises the process and then usually adds a crisp, hand-painted calligraphic line, here brushed in gold. The conviction and clarity evident in all of Shinoda's works reflect her forceful, independent personality. Even at her advanced age, Shinoda works with ceaseless energy, finding inspiration by spending days in a villa with a spectacular view of Mt. Fuji-"which stands alone, unique above the fray."ProvenanceThe Tolman Collection, New York, NY

On View

Not on view