Ray Yoshida

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Ray Yoshida

The late collagist Ray Yoshida disassembled and recombined everything from individual flower parts to illustrated sleeves cut from the pages of comic books, creating grids and illusions that demonstrate the power and beauty of collection. A longtime professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Yoshida was a huge influence on the Chicago Imagists, whose work was recently on exhibit in the museum.

press release: On view June 29, 2019, through April 12, 2020, the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art will present Ray Yoshida: The Spaces in Between, a selection of works by Yoshida from the museum’s permanent collection. Encompassing paintings, collages, and drawings, this exhibition provides a comprehensive look at the talented Chicago-based artist known for his experimental and innovative works of art.

I’m concerned about the co-existence of disparate forms, the spaces in between: closeness, distances, isolation, attachment, detachment.” - Ray Yoshida

Whether cutting out all the shirt sleeves from a comic book and arranging them into a collage or reknitting the individual components of a flower (stem, petal, leaves) into an elaborate watercolor grid, Yoshida’s work demonstrates the power and optical allure of a collection. This collagist sensibility also extended to his carefully curated home, where his extensive collection of folk art, tin toys, whirligigs, and masks were impressive in number and kind. Exploring the interconnectivity of a collection was central to Yoshida’s practice. Shapes that were otherwise isolated and inanimate developed a compelling aura when rearranged and grouped within one of his compositions. Throughout his work, abstract forms are elusive, yet recognizable. Yoshida aspired to create art that evoked questions rather than provided answers, urging the viewer to actively participate in deciphering his images. Is that a shoulder? A mountain? Maybe a head?

Yoshida was also a much-admired professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he was revered for his unique approach to teaching art. In line with his own fastidious gaze, he would ask his students to really look at an object and ask themselves, “how many ways can this object be represented?” He encouraged his students to look beyond the often European-centric art on the walls of museums and draw inspiration from storefront window displays, flea markets, and self-taught artists in order to broaden their visual vocabulary. His former students, which include several of the Chicago Imagists, are among the most accomplished artists of our generation.

Exhibitions in the Henry Street Gallery are generously funded through an endowment established by the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation.

MMoCA is closed every year on the following holidays: Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Easter, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve day, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s Day. Call the museum at 608.257.0158 to confirm dates and times.