FEBRUARY 17 – APRIL 1, 2012
This exhibition focuses on the rich artistic and cultural exchange that has taken place between Japan and the US since WWII. Tracing the remarkable career of Yoshida Hodaka, the exhibition explores issues of cultural identity and globalization for Japanese and Japanese Americans. Included are approximately 50 important painting, prints, calligraphy, photographs, sculpture, ceramics, furniture, video, and conceptual art made by artists from both countries.
Curator: Matt Rohn
Spring Break, March 17 – 25 (gallery closed)
Easter Break, April 6 – 9 (gallery closed)
Read about the exhibit in Professor Matt Rohn’s essay, “Yoshida Hodaka and Post World War II Japanese and American Artistic Exchange.”
ArtZany!-Radio for the Imagination | ‘Yoshida Hodaka Exhibit’ 02/17/12
Schedule of Events
Friday, February 17, 6 – 7:30 p.m. Opening Reception, with artist Ayomi Yoshida, daughter of Yoshida Hodaka. Flaten Art Museum Gallery, Center for Art and Dance
Monday, February 20, 7:00 p.m. Public Address, Ayomi Yoshida, by Ayomi Yoshida, Center for Art and Dance Room 305.
Tuesday, February 21, noon – 2:45. Print-making workshop by Ayomi Yoshida, Print-making studio, Center for Art and Dance Room 212
Monday, February 27, noon. Gallery talk by the curator of the exhibit, Associate Professor Matthew Rohn
Flaten Art Museum Gallery
Wednesday, February 29, 4:00 p.m. Associate Professors Karil Kucera (Asian Studies and Art History) and Matthew Rohn (Art History) discuss Post World War II Japanese and American Artistic Exchange in an informal panel conversation, East Looks West, West Looks East
Center for Art and Dance, Room 305
Saturday, March 3, 2:00 p.m. “Performance in the Spirit of Fluxus, Tokyo” By Zeitgeist, Virginia and Jennifer C. Groot Gallery,Center for Art and Dance
Tuesday, March 6, 7:30 p.m. Gallery talk by the curator of the exhibit, Associate Professor Matthew Rohn
The exhibit and programming is made possible by The Japan Foundation, New York; the Interdisciplinary Fine Arts Fund; the Arnold Flaten Lectureship Fund; the Nygaard Foundation; the St. Olaf Center for Undergraduate Research and the Faculty Development Grant programs.
Works in the exhibit include recent gifts of Yoshida Hodaka prints from Eugene’52 and Margaret ‘53 Skibbe as well as loans of art from the Skibbe’s and the collections of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The Walker Art Center, and the Weisman Art Museum. The exhibit includes Yoko Ono’s Peace Tree, which invites you to leave messages on the tree, using the tags provided.
We are grateful for this support.
Yoshida Hodaka was born in 1926, into a family of artists. Hodaka was not encouraged to follow an artistic career, but rather, one in science. In fact his father, Yoshida Hiroshi, was shocked when he learned that Hodaka wanted to be an abstract painter. Following his father’s death in 1950, and after a painting career, Hodaka turned to printmaking, and in the words of Eugene M. Skibbe (A Japanese Legacy, Four generations of Yoshida family artists) “emerged as a leader among Japanese print artists. Hodaka’s styles, while always his own, drew from post WWII Expressionism, Pop, Photorealism, and Color Field abstraction.” Hodaka died suddenly and unexpectedly in 1995.
Ayomi Yoshida, daughter of Hodaka, is the youngest artist in the widely recognized Japanese family of Yoshida artists. She is best known for her room-sized installations of woodships that have been created in galleries and museums in Japan and the United States.