#MiyokoIto

[harvardfineartslib]

“I have no place to take myself except painting.” – Miyoko Ito, 1978.

Miyoko Ito (1918–1983) was a Japanese American painter, born in Berkeley, California, and was active in Chicago where she studied at the Art Institute of Chicago.

When the World War II began in 1941 in the United States with the attack on Pearl Harbor, Ito was studying art at University of California, Berkeley. She was a senior scheduled to graduate in May 1942. In April 1942, Ito married Harry Ichiyasu to avoid being separated during the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans. Her husband was president of the senior class of the Japanese constituency at UC Berkeley. They were married on April 11th, but by the end of April they were sent to Tanforan internment camp near San Francisco, and later sent to Topaz under an Executive Order signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt. Ito received her diploma while she was in the internment camp, then received a grant to attend a graduate program at Smith College. She stayed there for one year before going on to study at the Art Institute of Chicago. Ito said she cried when she opened her diploma. She graduated with highest honors.

Miyoko Ito was hardly unknown during her lifetime, though she gained some attention and was granted residency fellowships at MacDowell in New Hampshire. It was there that she experienced “the meaning of full expression in the conductive environment,” she wrote in her “Plan of Work” in 1983. She continued, “I would like to escape the heretofore stifling condition of low ceiling, dim daylight, and inadequate floor space” of her bedroom studio in her house.

This publication, “Miyoko Ito: Heart of Hearts” is the first book dedicated to the life and work of Miyoko Ito, long overdue for this artist.

Image 1: Front cover featuring “Island in the Sun”, 1978, Oil on canvas, 38”x 33”

Image 2: Portrait of Miyoko Ito by Mary Baber, 1975

Image 3: “Aura”, 1966, Oil on canvas, 50”x 45”

Miyoko Ito : heart of hearts Pre-Echo, 2023. 452 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), portraits ; 30 cm English HOLLIS number: 99157645381703941

[sbowen]

Miyoko Ito

Laurie at at Two Coats of Paint has words about Matthew Marks recent exhibition featuring (the late) Miyoko. #miyokoito

[abwwia]

Miyoko Ito (1918–1983) oil on canvas from 1957, coming up for sale in the @sothebys, New York ‘Contemporary Day Auction’ on 14th May, estimate $100-150k

Miyoko Ito (April 27, 1918–August 18, 1983) was an American artist known for her watercolor and abstract oil paintings and prints. Via Wikipedia

[yesstess]

👁☀️👁 the incredible work of Miyoko Ito. Born in Berkeley, CA in 1918, "Her brightly saturated palettes, fusion of the geometric and the organic, ambiguous imagery recall Western movements such as Cubism, Surrealism, and Abstract Expressionism; in fact, Ito cites Hans Hofmann and Picasso as two major influences on her work. Perhaps her training in Japanese calligraphy and landscape painting can be seen in her extremely fine, carefully layered application of paint. It is also possible to read in her shifting indications of space a search for place, a reflection of the instability and geographical dislocations of her youth and early adulthood." - Amy Hong for Asian American Arts Centre, 2018 #MiyokoIto https://www.instagram.com/p/CE1ek4sl4lQ/?igshid=1bka0hct50w

[davidhopwood]

#pamphlet #miyokoito #art #painting #japan #america #portrait #photograph

[communedesign]

Miyoko Ito

Miyoko Ito was a Chicago painter and print maker whose work crosses the genres of abstraction, cubism and surrealism. Her work quietly enthralls us through extraordinary coloristic and tonal shifts that dance between abstraction and moments of clarity.

[harvardfineartslib]

Kicking off the month of May for Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month!

Carlos Villa : worlds in collision Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2021] HOLLIS number: 99155985964903941

Bruce and Norman Yonemoto : memory, matter, and modern romance Los Angeles, Calif. : Fellows of Contemporary Art : Japanese American National Museum ; Santa Monica : Distributed by Ram Publications, 1999 HOLLIS number: 990081800110203941

We Are in Open Circuits: Writings by Nam June Paik Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2019] HOLLIS number: 99153836469503941

Miyoko Ito: Heart of Hearts New York? : Pre-Echo, 2023 HOLLIS number: 99157645381703941

Do Ho Suh : works on paper : at STPI Singapore : STPI Creative Workshop & Gallery ; New York : DelMonico Books/D.A.P., 2021 HOLLIS number: 99155779049803941

[davidhopwood]

#pamphlet #miyokoito #art #painting #japan #america #colour