Terracotta Paintings

13X17 without the frame. Yasuhide Kobashi (古橋 矢須秀 Kobashi Yasuhide, 1931–2003) was a Japanese woodblock print artist, painter, sculptor and stage designer. He was born in Kojima in Okayama Prefecture. His father was a ceramic clay artist and head of the Kyoto Industrial Craft Company. Kobashi learned printmaking from the sōsaku hanga (creative prints) master Unichi Hiratsuka (1895–1997). In 1955, Kobashi graduated from the Kyoto College of Crafts and Textiles, and in 1959, he moved to New York City. At first he was sponsored by Lincoln Kirstein of the New York City Ballet, who had visited his studio in Kyoto and commissioned a number of works from him. Elaine De Kooning, art critic and wife of influential Abstract Expressionist Willem De Kooning recommended Kobashi to the Allan Stone Gallery, He would continue to work with this gallery for more than 30 years. When Kobashi moved to New York in 1959, many American intellectuals and artists were eager to learn about Japan.Among the early influences to reach a wide cross section of American society was Suzuki Daisetsu's (1870-1966) Introduction to Zen Buddhism, published in English in 1949 with a preface by the noted psychologist Carl Jung. Nelson Rockefeller (governor of New York and later vice-president) was Kobashi's patron, and acquired one of the artist's sculptures for the New York State Executive Mansion...