Portrait of Yasuo Kuniyoshi With Pipe 1932

Aline Fruhauf made this caricature of Yasuo Kuniyoshi with graphite on paper in 1932. The work depicts Kuniyoshi, a Japanese-born American painter, with exaggerated features that verge on the grotesque. During the early 20th century, caricature served a public role as a means of social and political commentary. Here, the image participates in a longer history of cultural exchange and artistic communities of the interwar period. The pipe and bowler hat are potent signifiers of European sophistication. Kuniyoshi wears these accoutrements with an air of self-possession. The reference to Kuniyoshi’s Japanese heritage is only visible in the artist's dark hair, which may serve as commentary on the melting pot of American identity. Fruhauf was working at a time when caricature was becoming an established genre within museums and galleries. To understand this image better, we might investigate the critical reception of Kuniyoshi's art, and the place of caricature within the institutional landscape. The meaning of art is always contingent on its social and institutional context.