About
Yoshida was born in 1924 in Ikeda City (part of present day Osaka). He studied art under the great Hayashi Kiyoshi and also Furukido Masaru, before those studies were interrupted by the war. Selected for training as a kami-kaze pilot, as part of the Special Attack Squadrons of the Japanese Naval Air Force, Yoshida was extremely lucky to survive his teens though the majority of his close friends were not so fortunate. After the close of hostilities, the memory of the traumatic experience of having walked so near to death spurred Yoshida to throw himself single-mindedly into his art again and devote himself to a sustained exploration of the life-affirming forces that he had seen so nearly extinguished. From that point onwards the majority of his work has carried the single, haunting and most telling of all titles: Life.
In 1964, Yoshida moved to Paris where he lived until 2009. He trained with the renowned English artist Stanley Hayter, and worked for many years at Hayter's well-known studio Atelier 17. In 1993 the quality of Yoshida's work was recognised when he was honoured to be the first living artist ever to be given a solo exhibition at the Japanese Galleries of the British Museum. His contribution to the exchange of culture between Japan and the West was acknowledged in a special programme broadcast by NHK (the Japanese National Broadcasting Service) in August 2010 timed to coincide with the commemorative services for the cessation of the Pacific War.
Yoshida's marvelous canvases owe much to the traditional screens of his native Japan in their use of precious metals, gold, silver, copper and platinum, applied in thin sheets over a binding layer of Japanese lacquer. They can be construed as momentary apperceptions of the transcendent power of the life force stirring both within us and around us, allowing his audience privileged access to the serene beauty of an otherwise intangible series of linked progressions that describe the very processes of Life itself.
Selected Collections:
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, France
Bibliothèque Royale, Brussels, Belgium
Museum of Modern Art, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia
Museu de Arte Contemporà ¢nea, Sà £o Paulo, Brazil
Modern Art Museum, Norrköping, Sweden
American Artists Association, New York, USA
Ministry of Culture, Paris, France
Musée d'art moderne, Haifa, Israel
The Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art, Haifa, Israel
Gerber Foundation, California, USA
The Royal Collection of Denmark
The British Museum, London, United Kingdom
Museo de Arte abstraccion de Zacatecas, Mexico
