Words of Gold

Shinoda Tōkō Japanese

Not on view

Over a gold-leaf background covered with a thin layer of white paint, the contemporary artist Shinoda Tōkō has brushed in ink a famous poem by the courtier-poet Ki no Tomonori from the anthology One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets (Hyakunin isshu, no. 33). Shinoda, who just turned a hundred years old recently, is best known as a painter, printmaker and lithographer, and has also earned esteem as calligrapher who had studied ancient models as a youth but went on to develop her own distinctive brush writing style. Shinoda’s graphic works, which brought her great fame during the postwar period, often incorporate abstracted calligraphic motifs, and an understanding of her experiments in calligraphy is crucial for a full understanding of her artistic corpus.

Words of Gold, Shinoda Tōkō (Japanese, 1913–2021), Ink on gilded paper; framed, Japan

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