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FOREWORD

In the Autumn of 1916, Yasuo Kuniyoshi enrolled at the Art Students League. I was also a new student in this class and this was the beginning of an acquaintance and a friendship. 

Along with many artists that knew him, this friendship have to us qualities and values that are not perishable. He contributed with passionate belief to the dignity and honor of our profession. 

As Kuniyoshi's art was personal and instinctive, to a degree his life was personal and instinctive, and his love of freedom and democracy was the desiring of all creative en for scope and form.

In was in 1929 that Kuniyoshi built his house on the side of a hill that overlooks the gentle valley that contains Woodstock. We came to know Yas as a neighbor, a gardener, a cook, a teller of broad tales and an ardent co-worker in our community art association. We knew his anger and his laughter and we were witness to his growth as a painter. It is appropriate that this memorial exhibition should be held in this place among his many friends. It is also congruous that this is an exhibition of drawings, because to most artists drawing is a more intimate act than painting. 

Most of these drawings displayed here have not been shown before. They were selected with the advice of Sara Kuniyoshi whose cooperation has made the showing possible. Many of the drawings were made as preparation for paintings and lithographs, others were drawn from the object and others were just drawings that came from speculation and search. They represent most of the periods of his work from 1916 to 1953, and to a great extent bring to us the vitality and sensitivity of this distinguished American artist. 

Arnold Blanch
Woodstock, New York
June 19, 1956