About Teruko Yokoi

Teruko Yokoi is an artist who was born in Aichi, Japan and lived in Switzerland She worked mainly in Europe and the United States Just like “poems drawn with color” she called her art works as, she created art works on the subject of seasonal scenery and nature such as flowers by various techniques/mediums, egg tempera, oil painting, water color, lithograph and so on Her works was characterized fusion of representational and abstract paintings, her colorful sense and bold composition.

横井照子Teruko Yokoi

Biography

1924

Born in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture and moved to Tsushima City shortly thereafter.
She learned oil painting from Mitsuki Suzuki of the Shunyokai.
Graduated from Tsushima High School for Girls (now Aichi Prefectural Tsushima High School).

Around 1946,
at Nagoya Station

1949

Moved to Tokyo and became an auditing student at Joshibi University of Art and Design.
Studied under Takanori Kinoshita of the Issuikai.

1951: Selected by Issuikai and Nitten Exhibition.

1949, in the process of creation

1953

Moves to United States and enters California School of Fine Arts (now San Francisco Art Institute) in San Francisco.
Her painting experiences a gradual shift toward abstraction.

1955, with classmates at art school

1954: Receives Top Honor Scholarship.

1955: Wins fourth prize in Seventy Fourth Annual Painting and Sculpture Exhibition held at San Francisco Museum of Art.
Wins Japan Society Scholarship in the category of painting.
Holds solo exhibition of oil paintings at California Palace of the Legion of Honor.

Works from the San Francisco period

1955

Moves to New York to study with the abstract expressionist painter Hans Hoffman.

Around 1955, in San Francisco

1956: Be warmly treated by an artist Kenzo Okada and his wife.
Studies with Julian Levi at Art Student League of New York in New York.
The use of color to express different atmospheres of the four seasons appears in her work.

Works from New York period

1956: Exhibited 50 ink sketches of San Francisco landscapes at the "Great Earthquake Special Art Exhibition" held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

1957: Wins prizes in Philadelphia Annual Exhibition at Pennsylvania Academy of The Fine Arts.

1958: Wins prizes in Washington Biennale at Corcoran Gallery of Art.

1959

Marries Sam Francis.

1959, with her own work

Works painted in Paris.

1960

Moves to Paris. Receives influence from Art informel movement.
In November, returns temporarily to Japan.

1961, at the venue of her solo exhibition at Minami Gallery, Tokyo

1962

Moved to Bern, Switzerland.

1964

She had a very successful three person exhibition at Kunsthalle Basel, and established himself as apainter in Switzerland.

1964, at the venue of the three person exhibition at Kunsthalle Basel

1969: Solo exhibition at Kunstmuseum Winterthur

1972: Solo exhibition at the Bernhardt Gallery
Solo exhibition at Atrium Gallery

1975: Five Foreign Painters in Bern “ at Kunstmuseum BernGrand Exhibition” at Kunstmuseum Bern

1981: Solo exhibition at Krebs Gallery

1987: Solo exhibition at Seibu Art Forum, “Like a Little Fluttering Sunflower”

Early works from the Bern period

1989: Solo exhibition at Berlay Abbey

1991

Obtained Swiss citizenship and Bernese citizenship

1970s, at Yokoi's studio

1995: Solo exhibition at Zimmermann House Gallery

1996: Solo exhibition at Nagoya International Cultural Center, Teruko Yokoi Exhibition “Poetry by Color” Lithographs 1969-1996 (Charity in support of Onoda Nature School)

2003: Solo exhibition at Fuji City Cultural Hall Rose Theater “Songs of the Four Seasons in Color”

Works from the late Bernese period

2004

Teruko Yokoi Hinageshi Art Museum opened.

1980s

2008: Teruko Yokoi Fuji Art Museum opened.

2009: Solo exhibition at Galerie Kornfeld, “Teruko Yokoi Retrospective Schnee Mond Blumen”

2015: Solo exhibition at Koumi machi Kogen Museum of Art, “70 years of artist life of Teruko Yokoi -Japanese Poems drawn in Switzerland-”

2016: Solo exhibition at Galerie Kornfeld, “Gemalte Poesie”

2019: Solo exhibition at Galerie Kornfeld, “Ausstellung zum 95. Geburtstag”

2020

Solo exhibition at Kunstmuseum Bern, “Teruko Yokoi. TOKYO NEW YORK PARIS BERN”
Died in October.
During her lifetime, Yokoi held more than 90 solo exhibitions in Japan, the U.S., Germany,
Switzerland, and other countries.

2020, at Kunstmuseum Bern

2021: Solo Exhibition at Tamesaburo Memorial Museum, a branch of the Furukawa Art Museum, “Teruko Yokoi Exhibition Blooming in Switzerland“

2023: Solo Exhibition at Tsushima Shrine, "International Painter Teruko Yokoi Exhibition: From Tsushima to the International Stage”

2024: Solo Exhibition at Marlborough gallery

Artbooks and catalogs

1986: Teruko Yokoi “Like a small poppy” (Exhibition catalogue)

1990: Teruko Yokoi “The Five Seasons” (Art book)

2009: Teruko Yokoi “Schnee Mond Blumen” (Exhibition catalogue)

2010: Teruko Yokoi “Mond-Sonne-Jahreszeiten” (Exhibition catalogue)

2012: Teruko Yokoi “Schnee Mond Blumen II” (Exhibition catalogue)

2015: Teruko Yokoi “70 years of artist life of Teruko Yokoi -Japanese Poems drawn in Switzerland-” (Exhibition catalogue)

2020: Teruko Yokoi “Teruko Yokoi. TOKYO-NEW YORK-PARIS-BERN” (Exhibition catalogue)