Verse-G, Shinoda Tōkō

Archive Label 2003:
Verse G is one of a number of prints that Patricia Fister, the former curator of Asian Art, saw in Japan and recommended that the Spencer Museum purchase. This print expands the breadth of the print collection, which in addition to the modern ceramic collection, serves to bring the collection of Japanese art up to the modern day.
Shinoda Tōkō, one of the most important artists to emerge in Japan after World War II, began her artistic career as a calligrapher. Later in life, she turned to painting and lithography to further explore the expressive power of the brush and the abstract qualities of line. The use of lithography allows Shinoda to transmit the energy and subtlety of the Japanese brush directly to the printing plate. Each print then becomes a dramatic record of her original gestures, as well as a contemporary abstract image.

Archive Label date unknown:
Shinoda Tōkō, one of the most important artists to emerge in Japan after World War II, began her artistic career as a calligrapher. Later in life she turned to painting and lithography to explore more fully the expressive power of the brush and the abstract qualities of line inherent in her calligraphy. Lithography, a medium rarely used by Japanese artists, allows Shinoda to transmit the energy and subtlety of the Japanese brush directly to the printing plate. Each print then becomes a dramatic record of her original gestures, as well as a contemporary abstract image.

Archive Label date unknown:
Shinoda began as a traditional Japanese calligrapher using brush and ink, but then turned to more abstract forms of painting and lithography. Her origins are evident in both of these prints. In For Thee N, bold calligraphic strokes forcefully race from left to right, gracefully balanced by wispy gold and green highlights. Shinoda loves to experiment with contrasting textures, colors, and negative/positive spaces-- as in Verse G where shimmering translucent shapes and lines have been juxtaposed against a dense black background.