Untitled (Abstract Composition)

Byron Goto

Hawaiian-born artist Byron Goto did this watercolor/ink drawing in 1963. Using India ink on a thin, absorbent Japanese paper he drew a surreal, expressionist linear structure which he colored with washes. As with many AbEx drawings, there are spots of oil and drips within the composition. It is signed and dated in pencil in the lower edge.

Goto commented about his work after graduating with an MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1946 and moving to Europe, where he studied with Lhote and Leger in Paris and Switzerland in the late 1940s:

"While working in Chicago, my work developed into a style evolved from an abstraction of nature influenced by the New York Abstract School of de Kooning [a close friend] and Pollack; geometric forms cut into the picture in a countering effect. I exhibited with the Momentum and the Chicago Artist Shows at the Art Institute. Winning the Martin B. Kahn award in the Institute's prestigious American Show was my first real break."

This work was from the collection of Academy Award winner photographer Lou Stoumen (1917-1991).