Oil on canvas, circa 1960. 1210x1090 mm; 47 5/8x43 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto, and countersigned in ink, verso.
Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey.
Okoshi (1921-2008) was born in Seattle and at age seven returned with her family to Japan. Her father had been a Japanese performer with the Barnum & Bailey circus and later as an entrepreneur bought the first patent rights to neon lights in Japan, to illuminate up the Ginza district of Tokyo. Okoshi survived the destruction of World War II in Japan, but soon afterward decided to return to America. She encountered obstruction by U.S. authorities refusing to recognize her as an American citizen by birth, but ultimately returned to Seattle, where she studyied art at Seattle University and the Modern Art Museum of Seattle. Okoshi also found inspiration in the work of Mark Tobey, then Seattle-based before his return to Europe in the late 1930s, who incorporated Japanese sumi painting, brush gesture and calligraphy into his Abstract Expressionist paintings.
Okoshi made her way to New York in 1956 where she worked as a beautician by day and spent her nights in her studio in the West Village. She studied with Jacob Lawrence at the New School Painting Workshop and sang in the choir at the Japanese American United Church on 143rd Street, where she met George Mukai. In 1976 Okoshi married Mukai who was also an artist. By then she was exhibiting in shows internationally and was an active member of the Westbeth Artists Community in the West Village.
