There is light discoloration across the surface and faint staining on the upper right side due to the age of the artwork. There are a few dot-shaped brown marks on the surface and sides.

Yoshikawa Shizuko (1934 -2019) studied design at the Ulm School of Design, a University known as the home of the Bauhaus in post-war Germany. Living in Zurich for most of her life, she began creating artworks at the age of 40. One day in 1977, Yoshikawa noticed the way natural light was shining through a canvas she was about to paint, reflecting transparent colors on a white wall. Based on this experience, and further inspiration from German poet Goethe’s Theory of Colors, she began work on the Color Shadow series. The series consists of precisely arranged square reliefs of different heights, made of polyester or epoxy resin, that Yoshikawa calls ‘types’. The opposite sides of each ‘type' are painted with acrylic in a complementary light pastel color. When light shines through the reliefs, the reflections of the colors appear as pattern on the white surface, changing with the light and the passage of time. This work, Color shadow No.22, was shown in 1978 at Yoshikawa’s solo exhibition at Minami Gallery, which at the time was one of the most important contemporary art galleries in Japan. Yoshikawa first became acquainted with Shimizu Kusuo, a gallerist at Minami Gallery, at Art Basel at a time when there were still very few Japanese artists exhibiting there. Yoshikawa’s works are a three-dimensional exploration of form and color that stem from her unique position at the intersection of modernism, in particular the influence of Zurich Concrete, and a use of color that is distinctly Japanese.

Minami Gallery, Tokyo

One-woman show "Color Shadow" 1978, Minami Gallery, Tokyo