41. Yasuo Kuniyoshi
(1893-1953)
Taxco, Mexico

(click on image to print)
Kuniyoshi: Taxco, Mexico

Taxco, Mexico

Lithograph, 1935, 270 x 365 mm., David L-69. Fine impression on white wove paper with full margins, signed and dated in pencil from an edition of 30; lightly and evenly time toned across the whole image area. Kuniyoshi was born in Okayama, Japan and came to America, apparently alone, at the age of either thirteen or seventeen (his birth date is in dispute) with little idea of becoming an artist, but never went back except for brief visits. He studied in Los Angeles, later at the Art Students League and, in time, became an important figure in American modern art, blending what he had absorbed from his American contemporaries, and the European influence of Picasso and others, with traditional Japanese modes of depiction. One wonders which of these inspired the odd and fascinating ambiguity of this image, for the black doorway and the black-clad woman entering it can also be read as a giant Aztec stone sculpture of a grinning head. The edition is small, the print rarely seen.