Yasuo Kuniyoshi

Yasuo Kuniyoshi came to the United States at the age of 16 after studying dyeing and weaving at technical schools in his native Japan. His family settled in Seattle but he went on to study at the Los Angeles School of Art and then at the Art Students League and National Academy of Design in New York. He later taught at the Art Students League. In the 1930s he rose to prominence joining Edith Halpert’s Downtown Gallery of modernist artists. Though he was persecuted during World War II he remained in the United States for the rest of his life, becoming one of America’s most creative and respected modernist painters and printmakers.