Yasuo Kuniyoshi

American painter, photographer, and printmaker, 1889–1953, born in Japan

BiographyBorn in Okayama, Japan, Kuniyoshi moved to the United States in 1906. He studied at the Los Angeles School of Art and Design before moving to New York City, where he studied under Kenneth Hayes Miller at the Art Students League. In the 1920s and 1930s, Kuniyoshi frequently depicted performers and members of the circus, as well as still life arrangements in prints and paintings. He stylized figures and incorporated elements of Cubism, but his subjects remained legible. Kuniyoshi's late ink drawings reflect Japanese artistic traditions. Despite his long residency in the United States and his involvement with liberal and anti-fascist organizations, Kuniyoshi was labeled an "enemy alien" by the United States government during World War II.

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