Details

Title

Abandoned Treasures

Artist/Maker

Yasuo Kuniyoshi (American, born Japan, 1893–1953)

Date

1945–1946

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

36 x 57 inches

Credit

Purchase with Henry B. Scott Fund

Accession #

57.60

On View

On View - Stent Family Wing, Level 3, Gallery 301

A guitar, magnifying glass, torn sack, watch, piece of paper, and moth in a jar are the abandoned treasures the artist brings together to create a melancholy sense of loss. Yasuo Kuniyoshi’s artworks trigger memory and imagination through unusual and ambiguous juxtapositions of ordinary objects. Some scholars have suggested that Kuniyoshi’s surrealist still lifes represent his personal reactions to the U.S. internment of Japanese residents during World War II. Such a policy would have resonated intensely with Kuniyoshi, who had emigrated from Japan several years prior in 1906.

Image Copyright

© Estate of Yasuo Kuniyoshi/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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