Fumio Yoshimura

Fumio Yoshimura (吉村 二三夫, Yoshimura Fumio, 1926 – July 23, 2002) was a Japanese and American sculptor. He was known for his wooden replicas of everyday objects such as plants and machines.^[1]

Fumio Yoshimura studied painting at Tokyo University of the Arts, graduating in 1949. He came to Manhattan in the early 1960s. He was married to Kate Millett, who dedicated her book Sexual Politics to him. In 1985, the couple divorced.

In New York he taught himself to work wood with various knives, chisels and drills and developed a virtuoso technique. He started with forms of plants and vegetables. He used white unpainted basswood, which gave a ghostly pallor to his sculptures of everyday objects such as typewriters,^[2] sewing machines, bicycles, or a hot-dog stand. His style is often associated with hyperrealism, but he has described his works as embodying the "ghost" of objects.^[3] Objects used for human activity were often the subject of his art, but he never depicted humans. "Three Bicycles" was the central work in an exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York City in 1986.^[4]

In 1981 Yoshimura was artist in residence at the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, where he then taught sculpture as an adjunct professor until 1993. Works by Fumio Yoshimura are in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Hood Museum.^[1]

• Yoshimura, Fumio (1979). Sculptures and Drawings by Fumio Yoshimura: March 29 to April 29, 1979. United States: Mead Art Museum, Amherst College.
• Yoshimura, Fumio (1984). Fumio Yoshimura: Spirits. United States: Mitchell Museum.
• Courtney, J.; Yoshimura, F. (1987). Fumio Yoshimura: December 4, 1987-January 23, 1988. United States: Temple Gallery.
• Yoshimura, Fumio (1993). Fumio Yoshimura: Harvest of a Quiet Eye. United States: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College.

• Hollis Taggart (n.d.). "Fumio Yoshimura: Alger Hiss' Woodstock Typewriter, ca. 1970". Artnet.
• Kennedy, Brian P.; Burke, Emily S. (2009). Modern and Contemporary Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art. United States: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College. pp. 121. ISBN 978-1-58465-787-3.
• Koplos, Janet; Metcalf, Bruce (2010). Makers: A History of American Studio Craft. University of North Carolina Press. pp. 369–375. ISBN 978-0807895832.
• Millett, Kate (2016) [1970]. Sexual Politics. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0231174251.
• NYT (August 10, 2002). "Fumio Yoshimura, 76, Sculptor of Everyday". The New York Times. Retrieved February 15, 2022.

• Millett, Kate (1974). Flying. United States: Knopf. ISBN 0394489853.
• NYM staff (July 29, 1968). "High as a Kite". New York Magazine. Vol. 1, no. 17. p. 13. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
• NYM staff (June 11, 1973). "Going Against the Grain". New York Magazine. Vol. 6, no. 24. p. 70. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
• Rosenberg, Rosalind (2004). Changing the Subject: How the Women of Columbia Shaped the Way We Think About Sex and Politics. Columbia University Press. pp. 225, 278. ISBN 978-0231126441.

• Fumio Yoshimura at Artfacts.net