Hodaka Yoshida
Hodaka Yoshida (1926–1995) was a Japanese painter and printmaker. He is known for breaking the mold of traditional Japanese printmaking and broadening the range of styles and techniques that had previously been used. During his 45-year career, Yoshida’s style and subject matter changed frequently. Using subjects drawn from cultures around the world and taking inspiration from Expressionism, Pop Art, and Photorealism, Yoshida’s prints are recognizable for their use of colour, expert composition, and their focus on promoting self-expression, a key element of sōsaku hanga (also known as the creative print movement). Over the course of his career, Yoshida produced over 600 prints.
Yoshida comes from a long lineage of Yoshida artists. His mother, Fujio Yoshida, and his father, Hiroshi Yoshida, were both Western-style artists who worked in oils and watercolours in the family’s Yoshida Studios. Beginning in 1925, they expanded their practice to include woodcut prints. Yoshida’s brother Tōshi Yoshida was also an artist, and he took over the family studio. Originally meant to be a scientist, Hodaka Yoshida decided to become an artist in the wake of the Second World War as government control over art in Japan was coming to an end. Yoshida used this freedom to explore abstraction and diverge from the artistic style typically employed by his family. His wife, Chizuka Yoshida, and daughter Ayomi Yoshida are both artists, and his son Takasuke Yoshida makes jewelry.
Working first with oils, Yoshida took up woodblock printing in 1950. He also experimented with other printmaking techniques including monoprinting, wood engraving, copper etching, silkscreening, lithography, and photo-transfer techniques. By the mid-1950s, Yoshida was exhibiting his work abroad in Mexico and the United States. Yoshida was a member of the Japanese Print Association and the Japanese Artist’s Association. He was also a teacher of woodblock printing at the University of Hawaii, the University of Oregon, and the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. His paintings and woodcuts can be found in a number of significant museum collections, including The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others.