Raven in the Wind

Yanagihara Yoshitatsu studied Japanese-style painting in his youth, then was moved to pursue sculpture after encountering the work of Émile-Antoine Bourdelle. Yanagihara graduated from Tokyo Fine Arts School and actively participated in non-officially-affiliated art associations such as Kokugakai and Shinseisaku-ha Kyokai (Shinseisaku Art Society). In 1953 he moved to France and studied under Emmanuel Auricoste, a pupil of Bourdelle. Yanagihara’s diverse experiences and interactions with other sculptors in Paris led him to distance himself from the academic approach to sculpture he had learned in Japan, and he eventually arrived at his own inimitable sculptural style. The motif of the raven, along with that of the dove, is one he revisited repeatedly beginning in 1965, when he was commissioned to produce a monument dedicated to animal welfare. The artist described this work, created in 1984 when he was aged 74, as “a self-portrait,” and it stands as a testament to his long and esteemed career in sculpture. (H.M.)