Acrylic on canvas, 38" x 49 5/8"
Not just a member of the Imagists, but an influential teacher to the rest, Yoshida was instrumental in introducing the others to outsider artists such as Joseph Yoakum and Maxwell Street Flea Market, as well as the undiscovered or overlooked corners of Chicago. Yoshida encouraged his students to mine their own personal experiences and memories for artistic inspiration, and he helped lay the groundwork for the Imagists' immersive focus on the world around them. As opposed to situating themselves in traditionally art historic subject matter such as valor, courage, strength and power, Yoshida and the Imagists placed themselves in the streets with the people.
His work can be geometric and totemic, heavily influenced by the non-Western art to which he was exposed as an undergraduate at SAIC. Yoshida’s work sometimes features faceless figures with striped robe-like costumes and tentacles for hands, seemingly inspired by non-western cultures as well as aliens. He is also well known for his comic book specimen collages, which are composed of random fragments clipped from comics and re-arranged in grids on paper to create new narratives and non-narratives alike. They oftentimes feel like comic books turned on their heads.
-Suellen Rocca, Curator
1977 photo of Ray Yoshida in his studio by Sandra Jorgensen, Elmhurst University Art Collection.
