{"data":{"id":"732","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":732,"topgoose_id":1877,"tms_id":732,"display_name":"Yasuo Kuniyoshi","sort_name":"Kuniyoshi Yasuo","display_date":"1889–1953","begin_date":"1889","end_date":"1953","biography":"\u003cp\u003eYasuo Kuniyoshi emigrated from Japan to\nthe United States in 1906, moving to\nCalifornia and then in 1910 to New York.\nThere he studied at the Art Students League\nand became an active participant in the\nWhitney Studio Club and a prominent\nfigure in American art during the first half\nof the century. Kuniyoshi and others in\nhis circle, in particular his friend and teacher\nHamilton Easter Field, were fascinated\nby American folk art and adopted a faux-naïf\nstyle for some of their work of the 1920s.\nKuniyoshi combined this sensibility with\nsophisticated undercurrents culled from\ntraditional Japanese painting and symbolism\nand stylistic elements from European\nmodernism. \u003ca href=\"/collection/works/1367\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eChild\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e is representative of his\npainting from this period, with the flattening\nof the space and the tilting of the table\nrevealing an acute awareness of Cubism\nas well as Japanese printmaking. The\ninfluence of Colonial American arts,\nincluding the decorative arts, is also evident\nin the clothes and furniture and in the\nwide-eyed, stiff pose of the child.\n\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKuniyoshi often depicted women,\nchildren, and female circus performers,\ndrawn from both his memory and imagination,\nin poses with mysterious objects that\ncreate enigmatic narratives. In 1948\nKuniyoshi was the subject of the Whitney\nMuseum’s first retrospective of a living\nartist, despite his having been legally barred,\nbecause of his national origins, from\nreceiving US citizenship.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500023210","wikidata_id":"Q3571991","created_at":"2017-08-30T16:40:47.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-12T07:02:35.414-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/732/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/732/exhibitions"}}}}