Indeliberate Dissociation

Ray Yoshida

1977

oil on canvas

25" x 37"

In a series of paintings from the 1970s, Yoshida depicted a set of abstract shapes that evoke just the sort of visual investigation that he strove to elicit: Are they figures, tools, land formations? In Indeliberate Dissociation, geometric structures appear to bulge and sprout appendages. On the left, one of the shapes looks like a figure with a flowing orange skirt and a jaunty brunette pompadour. In an interview he conveyed his artistic interests as “contained and isolated forms, distinct yet still related . . . seemingly abstract forms that relate to human tendencies: heads, profiles.” It’s as if he was testing the boundary between figuration and abstraction.

Credit

Promised gift of Mark and Judy Bednar