“Life and Peace”: A Painting Exhibition by Kenji Yoshida (Japan)

From 13-10-2008   to   31-10-2008
 (Paris - France) 

• © Kenji Yoshida

First living artist ever to be given a solo exhibition at the Japanese Galleries of the British Museum, Kenji Yoshida has contributed to UNESCO’s work in promoting intercultural dialogue through his art, by associating his paintings to several symposiums and publications on cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue.

Born in 1924, in Osaka, Japan, Yoshida studied art under the great Hayashi Kiyoshi and Furukido, before being selected for training as a kami-kaze pilot. 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 art. From that point onwards the majority of his work has carried the single title "Sei-Mei" - the Japanese word for "Life". In 1964, Yoshida moved to Paris where he has lived ever since, and where he enjoys an enviable reputation for the intense works of oil on canvas that synthesise traditional Japanese gold and silver-leaf appliqué techniques with his boldly original sense of colour.