Woods
Hodaka Yoshida, Japanese, 1926 - 1995
1955
Color woodblock print on paper
Edition 189/200
Sheet: 20 7/8 × 15 3/8 in. (53 × 39.1 cm)
Image: 16 1/2 × 9 3/4 in. (41.9 × 24.8 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Julia L. Whittier Fund
PR.956.6.4
Geography
Place Made: Japan, East Asia, Asia
Period
20th century
Object Name
Research Area
Not on view
Inscriptions
Signed, in graphite, lower right: Hodaka Yoshida; inscribed, in graphite, lower left: (Woods) 1955; center: 189/200
Label
The moon rises above a dense forest, which Yoshida created using multiple layers of woodblocks. The moonlight spreads throughout the night sky, illuminating everything with a pastel blue hue. Although this work does not depict a specific place, scholars assume that it was inspired by the artist’s travels through the United States, Cuba, and Mexico in 1955. Upon his return, Yoshida shifted the focus of his art from Buddhist icons to abstract motifs. His exposure to exotic landscapes provided an opportunity for experimentation with these motifs, which he successfully conveyed in this print through his bold simplification and careful composition of elements.
From the 2024 exhibition Attitude of Coexistence: Non-Humans in East Asian Art, curated by Haely Chang, Jane and Raphael Bernstein Associate Curator of East Asian Art
Exhibition History
Attitude of Coexistence: Non-humans in East Asian Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 5-June 29, 2025.
Publication History
Jill Baskin, An Old Landscape for a New Japan: shin hanga and sosaku hanga in the Hood Museum of Art, The Collegiate Journal of Art, A Dartmouth Undergraduate Publication, Vol. II, Fall 2005, Hanover, New Hampshire: Dartmouth College, p. 48 ill. 5.
Provenance
International Graphic Arts Society, Inc., New York; sold to present collection, 1956.
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