Lemons 1972

This is Funasaka Yoshisuke’s screenprint titled ‘Lemons’. Notice the composition is divided by a stark diagonal line that dominates the picture plane. On one side, a field of intense, saturated yellow; on the other, a soft off-white. This division isn't just formal, it’s conceptual. The lemons themselves, rendered as simple outlines, sit precisely on this boundary, existing in both realms but fully belonging to neither. This interplay destabilizes our reading of the image, asking us to consider what these lemons represent. Are they symbols of the natural world juxtaposed against the artificiality of color fields? Or do they question the very idea of representation? Consider how Yoshisuke uses line, color, and form not just to depict lemons, but to engage with fundamental questions about perception, representation, and the constructed nature of meaning itself. Yoshisuke invites us to recognize that what we see is never simply ‘there’ but is always mediated by systems of signs and cultural codes.