Yutaka Yoshinaga

About the Artist

Born: 1948, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan

Education

1966-67 Suidobata Institute of Art

1967-68 Funabashi Institute of Fine Art

His works

When you look at his works, you can see his pure material texture and colors, and you can find folding marks. They are like unfolded Origami or Furoshiki.

His pure material texture and colors

Yutaka Yoshinaga’s works almost always use Pigment and Pastel. The color variations they make possible are, of course, attractive. More important, however, is the achievement of layers of coloring that suggest resistance to their penetration, in contrast to the welcome permeation by ink or watercolors.

Folding marks

Yutaka Yoshinaga’s works are almost entirely drawn on Washi (Japanese handmade paper). He uses his whole body to fold and unfold the paper. The method is simple, yet it offers a way to make the differentiation of colors and gradations and the space they form stands out in contrast to line surfaces.

Artist’s Statement

“These works are handmade. They are about my relationship to material and to time.” Yoshinaga makes his paintings on paper, usually with dry pigments rather than paint, working one square at a time with the paper folded. There is, he says, an “accumulation of touch.” There are repairs, handling marks, like the Japanese fusuma, or sliding doors, built of light wood grids covered with paper and repaired as needed one square at a time. Although most people who see Yoshinaga’s work describe it as beautiful, the artist is not thinking about beauty. What concerns him is “the life of the materials.” Yutaka Yoshinaga

Collections

Düsseldorf Municipal Art Museum, Germany

Rio de Janeiro Museum of Modern Art, Brazil

Poliforum Cultural Siqueiros, Mexico City

Kanagawa Prefectural Gallery (Prefectural Collections)Japan

Chiba City Museum of Art, Chiba pref. Japan

Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery (Terada Collections), Tokyo

National Gallery of Art, of Washington D.C USA

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (Legion Honor Achen Bach Foundation) San Francisco, CA USA

Kakitagawa Museum, Shizuoka pref. Japan

Loft Museum of Contemporary Art,TEN, Niigata pref. Japan

Imadate City Fukui pref.(City Collections) Japan