Wistaria at Ushijima 1953

Toshi Yoshida’s print “Wistaria at Ushijima” captures this flowering tree with a clear eye and hand, through a process involving both careful planning and spontaneous, intuitive gesture. Look closely, and you see a web of twisting, gnarled branches, rendered with such detail. The grey-brown tones of the wood contrast with the bright violet of the suspended flowers. The texture, though of course flattened by the printmaking process, conveys a sense of three-dimensionality, like you could reach out and touch the bark. I find myself drawn to how the artist has captured the way the wisteria hangs, like a curtain or fringe, framing the tree. Yoshida's work reminds me a little of some of the visionary, almost psychedelic landscapes of someone like Charles Burchfield, with his emphasis on the experience of nature. Art, at its best, invites us to see the world anew, to find beauty and wonder in the everyday.