New Star No. 2
- Date:
- 1957
- Medium:
- Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
- Dimensions:
- 57.6 × 41 cm
- Edition:
- Self-printed
- Source:
- Minneapolis Institute of Art
$500–$5,000. Common prints: $500–$1,500. Key value factors: Yoshida Masaji's abstract prints are collected by those interested in post-war Japanese modernism.
Created in 1957 with ink and color on paper, this woodblock print uses the celestial image of a new star, a nova, as a point of departure for abstract investigation. A new star appears where none was seen before, a sudden bright presence against the dark field of space. Masaji translates this astronomical event into the language of woodblock printing, where light areas emerge from dark backgrounds through the strategic removal of wood from the printing block. The carved-away areas receive no ink and print as luminous absences, making the creation of light in woodblock a subtractive process that mirrors the astronomer's experience of a new point of brightness appearing in a previously dark region of sky. The second-in-series designation suggests Masaji found this stellar metaphor productive enough to warrant multiple investigations.
Woodblock print
Teradomari no yau
1921
Color woodblock print; oban
![Mount Fuji on a Moonlit Night, Kawai Bridge (Tsukiyo no Fuji [Kawaibashi]), from the series "Selection of Views of the Tokaido (Tokaido fukei senshu)" by Kawase Hasui](https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/d0960668-1e73-339a-b182-fb995a54bff0/full/843,/0/default.jpg)
1947
Color woodblock print; oban
March 1933
Color woodblock print; oban
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
New Star No. 2 was created by Yoshida Masaji (吉田政次) in 1957.
New Star No. 2 depicts night scenes and abstract.
New Star No. 2 measures 57.6 × 41 cm.
