My Man

Yasuo KuniyoshiWW-1943-016249

1943·Casein on board·37.5 × 26.7 cm (14 3/4 × 10 1/2 in.)

<p>In <em>My Man</em>, Japanese-born artist Yasuo Kuniyoshi depicted a common sight during World War II: a woman embracing a sailor. Kuniyoshi’s version of the scene depicts a blond-haired man and an Asian woman at a time when the loyalty of Japanese Americans was being questioned. Even as tens of thousands of Japanese Americans enlisted or already served in the United States military, the government imprisoned thousands of citizens of Japanese descent in incarceration camps between 1942 and 1945. Kuniyoshi was labeled an “enemy alien,” and his assets were frozen. The dealer Edith Halpert, herself an immigrant, promoted his work throughout the war and sold this painting to the Art Institute shortly after he created it.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1943
Medium: Casein on board
Dimensions: 37.5 × 26.7 cm (14 3/4 × 10 1/2 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Yasuo Kuniyoshi

Artist

Yasuo Kuniyoshi

Painting

Yasuo Kuniyoshi was an American painter and printmaker of Japanese birth whose figurative work combined modernist abstraction with a deeply humanistic sensibility. Working primarily in oil and lithography between the 1920s and 1950s, he developed a distinctive approach to the human form that resisted both pure abstraction and academic realism. His subjects, often solitary or grouped figures rendered with simplified planes and muted palettes, convey psychological complexity and emotional restraint. Kuniyoshi's practice bridged Japanese ukiyo-e tradition and American social realism, establishing him as a significant voice in twentieth-century American art.

New York City

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