YNEZ JOHNSTON b.1920

Biography: Ynez Johnston graduated in 1946 from University of California, Berkeley with honors as a painter and printmaker. She was fascinated by Chinatown of San Francisco and the Bay surrounding the hills of the city. She moved to Los Angeles in 1951 to teach and create; early awards led to shows and work abroad. The images of her travels combined into a collage of visual experiences. Her concerns are in the suspension of time relationships, in creating a drama which synthesizes an exotic metamorphosis of animals, foliage and structures. She creates intriguing fantasies in etchings and woodcuts, collage, paintings, wood and bronze sculptures. Johnston makes dramatic use of jewel-like colors and bold lines in her work in various media. She also embraces new techniques. Her aesthetic vocabulary prods our memories and references romantic and mystic cultures. Throughout, she is guided by a modern sensitivity and suggests teeming cities, landscapes, gorgeous royal trappings and improbable vehicles in which we can travel through magical settings.

Chronology: [Click For Chrono PDF]



Exhibitions at Tobey C. Moss Gallery:



  2003 Ynez Johnston: A Fifty Five Year Retrospective

  1998 Ynez Johnston: An Overview: 1940s-1990s

  1994 Ynez Johnston: Intaglio, Woodcuts and Lithographs

Paintings

Image Click on title for further info	Title Click on title for further info	Medium	Date
	Straits of Messina	Casein/board	1953
	Untitled	Oils on heavy paper	1974
	Xmas Card	Gouache on handmade rice paper	1989/90
	Sea Phantom	"Plastic steel" and pigment on canvas	1962

Drawings

Image Click on title for further info	Title Click on title for further info	Medium	Date
	Abstraction with Fish	Ink	1947

Prints

Image Click on title for further info	Title Click on title for further info	Medium	Date
	Breakwater	Etching and aquatint	1953
	Cnossos (Marco Polo)	Color intaglio	1962
	Cosmic Mountain	Color intaglio	1981
	Crossing the Date-Line	Color intaglio	1977
	Evening Raga	Color intaglio	1967-68
	Fog, Taiwan	Color intaglio	1959
	Hunting Scene	Color etching	1964
	Marco Polo (Cnossos)	Color etching and aquatint	1962
	Nautical Adventures	Color intaglio	1967-68
	Of Yin and Yang	Color intaglio	1967-68
	River Picnic	color intaglio	1967-68
	The He and the She of It	Color intaglio	1967-68
	The Kiss	Color intaglio	1967-68
	Tomb of the Rajah	Etching	1949
	Tribal Coast	Color etching	1964
	Untitled (Voyages V)	Color lithograph	1966
	Voyage in Africa	Etching	1949
	Voyage to the East	Etching	1954
	With Peach and Dragon Emblems	Color intaglio	1968

Sculpture

Image Click on title for further info	Title Click on title for further info	Medium	Date
	Sea Phantom	"Plastic steel" and pigment on canvas	1962

Collage

Image Click on title for further info	Title Click on title for further info	Medium	Date
	Greetings	Collage, gouache and ink and on handmade paper	1999