Undesirable Grouping

In addition to being an artist and influential teacher, Ray Yoshida was also a collector. His paintings were influenced by his personal collection of folk art and found objects, as well as by comics. They often depict stylized and distorted figures in various situations that, much like the artist himself, have been referred to as enigmatic, mysterious, and witty. Undesirable Grouping is one such mysterious painting, with its dark colors and its subjects difficult to interpret.

Yoshida is a well-known as a mentor to the Chicago Imagists, but he was also an important artist in his own right. After graduating from the School of the Art Institute with a BFA in 1953, he returned as an instructor and taught many aspiring artists over nearly four decades, from 1959 to 2005. He encouraged his students to look outside of the fine arts for visual experiences, as he did in his own work.