It is so easy to fail in abstract art, and so difficult to succeed in calligraphy.Yet Toko Shinoda has the rare ability to fuse both forms of expression, in paintings that strike to the heart. Her work may be severe, intense and personal, but it is not inscrutable. Rather, it is poetic, and speaks of longing, mystery and the quiet blessings of existence.
Born in 1913, she has survived nearly a century of rapid change and won recognition in the tough, fickle world of international art. While some postwar artists rejected their Japanese roots, Shinoda has pushed the traditional strengths of line, space and abstraction to new limits.
She rose to prominence in New York in the 1950s, on the great wave of interest in Zen paintings and the new Abstract Expressionists. Today, her work is in the collections of the British Museum, the Guggenheim and Japan's National Museum of Modern Art, among others. But while much abstract art of the era now looks dated, hers has an eternal quality.