In 2007, Yoshida said ‘Life brightens most when peace occurs. Peace is supreme beauty’ and this constantly repeated idea suffuses his art. This exhibition will display selected and unseen works from different periods of the artist’s career.
In the oil on paper works from the ‘70s and ‘80s, Yoshida experimented with irregular forms and muted colours merging imperceptibly into one another. However, this exhibition will focus primarily on Yoshida’s later paintings in which gold and silver are dynamically applied upon contrasting fields of bright colours and black grounds. Stunning multi-panelled pieces remember, in their sheer size, traditional Japanese lacquer screens and their exquisite deployment of gold and silver leaf.
Trained as a pilot of the Japanese Naval Air Force. By the time Yoshida graduated, in 1945, the end of the war was already looming, and the decision was made to launch the remaining planes in ‘kami-kaze’ attacks against the onrushing might of the American Pacific fleet. With extraordinary fortune, the war ended just before his unit was called upon to attack the fleet and he dedicated his life to peace and art.
In 1993, the quality of Yoshida’s work was recognised when he was honoured as the first living artist ever to be given a solo exhibition at the Japanese Galleries of the British Museum.
Admission FREE
October Gallery
24 Old Gloucester Street
London WC1N 3AL
Telephone: 020 7242 7367
Opening hours: Tuesday – Saturday 12.30 - 5.30pm
Courtyard café: Tuesday – Friday 12.30 - 2.30pm
www.octobergallery.co.uk
Image:
Kenji Yoshida, La Vie, 1994. Metal and oil on canvas,
53 x 74 cm.Photo by Jonathan Greet.
Image courtesy of October Gallery, London.