TOKO SHINODA

Toko Shinoda (March 28, 1913 – March 1, 2021) was a Japanese artist working with sumi ink paintings and prints. Her art merges traditional calligraphy with modern abstract expressionism. A 1983 interview in Time magazine asserted “her trail-blazing accomplishments are analogous to Picasso’s”.
Shinoda’s works had been exhibited in the Hague National Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, Cincinnati Art Museum and other leading museums in the world.
She considers herself as not belonging to a particular school or style, but works all by herself.
The artist prefers her paintings and original drawings, because sumi ink presents unlimited color spectrum. Her paintings are primarily monochromatic, using sumi black, with some use of cinnabar, gold, silver, or platinum. In printmaking, Shinoda uses lithograph as her medium. Unlike woodcut that requires chisel, or etching that requires acid, lithograph allows Shinoda to work directly and spontaneously on the plate with her fluid brushstroke.
Shinoda’s strokes are meant to suggest images and vitality of nature. She says, “Certain forms float up in my mind’s eye. Aromas, a blowing breeze, a rain-drenched gust of wind…the air in motion, my heart in motion. I try to capture these vague, evanescent images of the instant and put them into vivid form.” 
Shinoda’s print editions are small, usually ranging from twelve to fifty-five, and after each edition has been pulled, she often adds a stroke or two of sumi color by hand to each print.