Amithaba

Kenji Yoshida
AMITHABA
oil and metals on linen
77 × 153 1/2 in, 195.6 × 389.9 cm

Yoshida was born in 1924 in Ikeda City (part of present day Osaka). He studied art under the great Hayashi Kiyoshi and also Furukido Masaru, before those studies were interrupted by the war. Selected for training as a kami-kaze pilot, as part of the Special Attack Squadrons of the Japanese Naval Air Force, Yoshida was extremely lucky to survive his teens – though the majority of his close friends were not so fortunate. After the close of hostilities, the memory of the traumatic experience of having walked so near to death spurred Yoshida to throw himself single-mindedly into his art again and devote himself to a sustained exploration of the life-affirming forces that he had seen so nearly extinguished. From that point onwards the majority of his work has carried the single, haunting and most telling of all titles: Life.

In 1964, Yoshida moved to Paris where he lived until 2009. He trained with the renowned English artist Stanley Hayter, and worked for many years at Hayter’s well-known studio Atelier 17. In 1993 the quality of Yoshida’s work was recognised when he was honoured to be the first living artist ever to be given a solo exhibition at the Japanese Galleries of the British Museum.