Toko Shinoda: Lithographs

About the Exhibition

　Toko Shinoda is a leading Japanese bokusho (abstract ink painting) artist. Unlike oil painting, which is done in layers, suiboku, or ink painting, captures momentary flows of ink on paper by the concentration of the artist’s attention on each brush stroke. Toko relies on such strokes in rendering into form images that flash through her mind.
　She started doing lithography around 1960. Lithography is a printing technique that allows movement of the brush directly on the plate, just as when brushing on paper. It can therefore capture what is expressed by the brush just as it is. In lithography, as in suiboku, Toko concentrates on the brush capturing the moment of what comes into her mind. She has produced more than 1,000 lithographs, each of which she created while enjoying the encounter with the unexpected lines that form by the work of water on the plate.
　The exhibition includes, along with the lithographs, etchings by Toko that have recently joined the collection.