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Galerie Sommerlath

"HUNTING SCENE II" Lithograph by Ynez Johnston

"HUNTING SCENE II" Lithograph by Ynez Johnston

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"Hunting Scene II," a lithograph by American artist Ynez Johnston created in 1964, is part of a series published by the International Graphic Arts Society (IGAS) in September 1965. Limited to an edition of 210 copies, this work was distributed between Europe and the United States.

Johnson explores a singular aesthetic, combining color aquatint and etching—techniques that enable the superposition of rich textures and intricate engraved lines. The artist presents a composite entity in constant transformation, where each fragment contributes to a living and unique whole. Her husband, poet John Berry, captured the essence of this work in the IGAS catalog entry:

"Man—cosmological and metaphysical—is the referent and point of departure for the symbol-like forms which Johnston has developed, although these defy identification with recognizable objects. The forms of man's culture are seen as parts of a living organism, of man himself: not 'mere' man as the segmented biped, but as the expanding universe of his consciousness. The architecture with which he has encrusted the earth partakes of the turbulent life of its builder… cities, cultivated regions, diversified and discrete, all are alive, and all—sometimes through the mediation of himself as a beast—are a part of this single, mythical, human organism."

 

Johnston employs multiple perspective techniques and a symbolic, enigmatic graphic vocabulary, flattening space while integrating the planes of the front, middle, and back into a composition that is at once chaotic and organic. Fragmented forms intertwine, and dark, labyrinthine angular contours unfold into a complex cartography, where the gaze becomes lost in an imaginary world. This world evokes the tesserae of a Byzantine mosaic and the symbolism of a Tibetan thangka in a contemporary interpretation.

 

The chromatic palette—dominated by olive greens, earthy browns, and deep blacks—amplifies the impression of a legendary realm that feels both ancient and timeless. Each element, whether architectural figures or abstract motifs, engages in a dialogue between order and disorder, permanence and transformation.

The title, "Hunting Scene II," invites metaphorical interpretation. While no identifiable hunters or beasts appear, a narrative tension pervades the work. Is this the human quest—spiritual, intellectual, or existential—unfolding within this maze of shapes and motifs? Man seems both the builder of this landscape and the explorer within it: prisoner and creator of an ever-expanding universe.


- B I O -

Ynez Johnston, printmaker, painter, sculptor, and teacher, was born in Berkeley, California on May 12, 1920. As a child, her family encouraged her artistic tendencies by enrolling her in Saturday classes at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland and with excursions to the de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco. Ynez later attended the University of California at Berkeley, receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1941 and the Bertha B. Taussig Memorial Award for the outstanding graduate in fine arts. Her instructors, Worth Ryder, Erle Loran, and Margaret Peterson, introduced her to the work of Picasso, Klee, Miro, and Braque.

In the early 1940s, Johnston traveled to Mexico to continue her studies but returned to Berkeley in 1943 eventually earning her Masters of Fine Arts in 1946. In 1949, she summered in Paris and then relocated to the Los Angeles area in the fall. Finding herself without a studio or press, Leonard Edmondson, a friend from college, opened his studio to her. She experimented with woodcuts and began to do sculpture in 1950.

Johnston taught at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Chouinard Art Institute, California State College, University of Judaism, and Otis Art Institute. She was awarded the Anne Bremer Award in 1949, the Huntington Hartford Residence in 1951 and 1957, the Guggenheim Foundation Grant in 1952, the Louis Comfort Tiffany Grant in 1955 and 1956, the James D. Phelan Grant in 1958, the MacDowell Colony Residency Grant in 1960, and the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1976, 1985, and 1986. In 1992, the Fresno Art Museum honored Johnston with its Distinguished Woman Artist award, and a retrospective of her work was mounted at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History in 1998.

Works by Ynez Johnston have been regularly exhibited across the United States and internationally, including shows in Japan, India, and Brazil. She is represented in over 60 institutional collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, NY; Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Brooklyn Museum; Smithsonian American Art Museum; National Gallery of Art; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; Art Institute of Chicago; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Dallas Museum of Art; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Ynez Johnston died on 13 March 2019 in Los Angeles, California.

REFERENCE NUMBER: LU654315659572
PERIOD: 1960-1969
CONDITION: Good
MEASUREMENTS: Height: 18.25" Width: 24.75" Depth: 1.5"
COUNT: 1
MATERIAL: Paper
CREATOR: Ynez Johnston (Painter)

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