The painter is caught in the act of taking a photograph, an activity he first took up in 1919 to supplement his income. "I bought a regular studio camera and practiced taking pictures by using my own canvases as models…. in between painting I received commissions from friends and galleries for photographing sculpture and paintings." Later, in the 1930s, he also produced photographs that were independent artworks.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Self-Portrait as a Photographer
Artist:Yasuo Kuniyoshi (American (born Japan), Okayama 1889–1953 New York)
Date:1924
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:20 1/2 × 30 1/4 in. (52.1 × 76.8 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of Scofield Thayer, 1982
Object Number:1984.433.11
[Charles Daniel, New York, until 1925; sold on January 26, 1925 for $200, as "Self-Portrait," to Thayer]; Scofield Thayer, New York (1925–d. 1982; on extended loan to the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Mass., as part of the Dial Collection, 1936–82; his bequest to MMA)
New York. Daniel Gallery. "Recent Paintings and Drawings by Yasuo Kuniyoshi," closed on January 24, 1925, no. 7 (as "Self-Portrait").
Tokyo. Mitsukoshi department store. "Yasuo Kuniyoshi," November 19–23, 1931.
Osaka. Shirokya department store. "Yasuo Kuniyoshi," December 18–21, 1931.
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Yasuo Kuniyoshi Retrospective Exhibition," March 27–May 9, 1948, no. 20 (as "Self-Portrait," lent anonymously through the courtesy of the Worcester Art Museum).
Worcester Art Museum. "The Dial and the Dial Collection," April 30–September 8, 1959, no. 34 (as "Portrait of the Artist").
New York. Downtown Gallery. "The Dial and the Dial Collection: A Special Loan Exhibition of Paintings, Sculpture & Graphics by Thirty American Artists," September 22–October 17, 1959, no. 15 (as "Portrait of the Artist," 1925).
Worcester Art Museum. "The Dial Revisited," June 29–August 22, 1971, no catalogue.
Worcester Art Museum. "'The Dial': Arts and Letters in the 1920s," March 7–May 10, 1981, no. 60 (as "Self-Portrait").
Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum. "Yasuo Kuniyoshi," November 1–December 24, 1989, no. 19 (as "Self-Portrait with Camera").
Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art. "Yasuo Kuniyoshi," January 5–February 12, 1990, no. 19.
National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto. "Yasuo Kuniyoshi," February 20–April 1, 1990, no. 19.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "14 Americans," July 16, 1990–January 2, 1991, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "As They Were: 1900–1929," April 9–September 8, 1996, no catalogue.
Fort Worth. Amon Carter Museum. "The Shores of a Dream: Yasuo Kuniyoshi's Early Work in America," September 7–November 17, 1996, unnumbered cat. (pl. 12).
Portland, Me. Portland Museum of Art. "The Shores of a Dream: Yasuo Kuniyoshi's Early Work in America," February 1–March 30, 1997, unnumbered cat.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Looking At You," January 26–September 30, 2001, no catalogue.
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. "Yasuo Kuniyoshi (1889–1953)," March 23–May 16, 2004, no. 32.
Museum of Modern Art, Toyama. "Yasuo Kuniyoshi (1889–1953)," May 29–July 19, 2004, no. 32.
Nagoya. Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art. "Yasuo Kuniyoshi (1889–1953)," August 6–September 26, 2004, no. 32.
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Museum. "Asian/ American/ Modern Art: Shifting Currents, 1900–1970," October 25, 2008–January 18, 2009, no. 7.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Lens and the Mirror, Part 1: Modern Self-Portraits from the Collection," April 7–July 12, 2009, no catalogue.
Brooklyn Museum. "Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties," October 28, 2011–January 29, 2012, unnumbered cat. (fig. 74).
Dallas Museum of Art. "Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties," March 4–May 27, 2012, unnumbered cat.
Cleveland Museum of Art. "Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties," July 1–September 16, 2012, unnumbered cat.
Washington, D. C. Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery. "The Artistic Journey of Yasuo Kuniyoshi," April 3–August 30, 2015, no. 23.
Dudley Poore. "Current Exhibitions." Arts 7 (February 1925), pp. 113–14, ill., calls it "Self Portrait"
.
Henry McBride. "Modern Art." Dial 78 (March 1925), p. 257, ill. between pp. 206 and 207, calls it "Portrait of the Artist".
"Art: Exhibitions of the Week." New York Times (January 4, 1925), p. X11.
Henry McBride. "Robust Art of Yasuo Kuniyoshi." New York Sun (January 3, 1925).
Forbes Watson. "The Art of Kuniyoshi Combines Qualities of East and West." New York World (January 11, 1925).
Der Querschnitt 6 (March 1926), ill. between pp. 208 and 209.
Yasuo Kuniyoshi. "East to West." Magazine of Art 33 (February 1940), ill. p. 72, calls it "Self-Portrait".
Aline B. Louchheim. "Kuniyoshi: Look, My Past." Art News 47 (April 1948), pp. 47–48, ill.
Robert M. Coates. "The Art Galleries: A Kuniyoshi Retrospective." New Yorker 24 (April 3, 1948), p. 72.
Louisa Dresser inThe Dial and the Dial Collection. Exh. cat., Worcester Art Museum. Worcester, Mass., 1959, p. 69, no. 34.
Franklin Riehlman and Tom Wolf inYasuo Kuniyoshi: Artist as Photographer. Exh. cat., Edith C. Blum Art Institute. Milton and Sally Avery Arts Center. Bard College Center. Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., 1983, p. 8, fig. 1, call it "Self-Portrait with Camera" and locate it formerly on loan to the Worcester Art Museum; date it 1923 in the caption and 1924 in the text.
Lloyd Goodrich and Garnett McCoy. "Lloyd Goodrich Reminisces: Part II." Archives of American Art Journal 23, no. 1 (1983), p. 13, ill., call it "Self Portrait".
Susan Lubowsky inYasuo Kuniyoshi. Exh. cat., Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum. [Tokyo], 1989, pp. 24–25, 214, no. 19, ill. p. 63 (color).
Tom Wolf inYasuo Kuniyoshi. Exh. cat., Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum. [Tokyo], 1989, p. 164.
Shigemi Asano, ed. Yasuo Kuniyoshi. Okayama, 1991, pp. 84, 214, no. 106, ill. (color), calls it "Self-Portrait with Camera".
Tom Wolf inThe Shores of a Dream: Yasuo Kuniyoshi's Early Work in America. Exh. cat., Amon Carter Museum. Fort Worth, 1996, p. 26, colorpl. 12.
Masanori Ichikawa inYasuo Kuniyoshi (1889–1953). Ed. Mika Kuraya and Masaaki Ozaki. Exh. cat., National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, 2004, pp. 182–83, 185, 202, no. 32, ill. p. 64 (color).
Mika Kuraya inYasuo Kuniyoshi (1889–1953). Ed. Mika Kuraya and Masaaki Ozaki. Exh. cat., National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, 2004, p. 195.
Mark Dean Johnson inAsian/ American/ Modern Art: Shifting Currents, 1900–1970. Ed. Daniell Cornell and Mark Dean Johnson. Exh. cat., Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Museum. San Francisco, 2008, p. 51, no. 7, ill. (color).
ShiPu Wang inAsian/ American/ Modern Art: Shifting Currents, 1900–1970. Ed. Daniell Cornell and Mark Dean Johnson. Exh. cat., Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Museum. San Francisco, 2008, pp. 23–24.
Sharon Mizota. "Asian/ American/ Modern Art: Shifting Currents, 1900–1970. De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA." X-TRA II (Summer 2009), ill. p. 47 (color).
Teresa A. Carbone inYouth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties. Ed. Teresa A. Carbone. Exh. cat., Brooklyn Museum. New York, 2011, p. 98, fig. 74 (color).
ShiPu Wang. Becoming American? The Art and Identity Crisis of Yasuo Kuniyoshi. Honolulu, 2011, pp. 26–27, 33, 103, fig. 5.
John A. Parks. "The Art of the American Twenties. Part 1. The Liberating Figure." American Artist 75 (November 2011), p. 37, ill. p. 35 (color).
Jacqueline Francis. Making Race: Modernism and "Racial Art" in America. Seattle, 2012, pp. 21–22, fig. 1.5.
Tom Wolf inThe Artistic Journey of Yasuo Kuniyoshi. Exh. cat., Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery. Washington, D. C., 2015, pp. 29–30, 80, colorpl. 23 and ill. front cover (color detail).
Susan G. Lewis. "Reviews: 'The Artistic Journey of Yasuo Kuniyoshi' by Tom Wolf." Impressions no. 38 (2017), p. 199, figs. 3a (color), 3b (color, Ref. Wolf 2015 front cover).
Sasha Nicholas. Creative Figures: Portraiture and the Making of the Modern American Artist, 1918–1930. PhD diss., City University of New York. 2023.
Yasuo Kuniyoshi (American (born Japan), Okayama 1889–1953 New York)
1928
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