Named after a park in Tokyo, Yoyogi II is the second in a two-part series of prints produced during Pfaff’s participation in Crown Point Press’s Japanese Print Project. The earliest work in the exhibition, it exemplifies the paradoxical nature of Pfaff’s work. Its mountainous peaks, soft green hues, and organic shapes are reminiscent of the natural world – however, Pfaff’s use of bright primary colors gives the work a sense of artificiality, effectively blurring the lines between landscape and abstract forms. In addition to occupying the liminal space between natural and artificial, Yoyogi represents a transitional period in the artist’s style: the undulating lines and wood grain textures recall the treelike structures and painterly growth rings in Frio (1984), one of her earlier works, while the combination of visible brushstrokes, cross-hatched grids, and black spirals are elements that would become characteristic of subsequent works, like Wallabout.
In 1981, Crown Point founder Kathan Brown invited Judy Pfaff to make etchings at the Press. Though flattered, she declined, explaining that she had “developed an allergy to printmaking” after majoring in the discipline as an undergraduate and working in the printmaking department while attending Yale University School of Art (Brown, p. 44). Brown continued to follow Pfaff’s work and attend her installations, eventually approaching her for a second time in 1985 with an opportunity to make woodcuts in Japan. Pfaff agreed. The Crown Point Press woodcut project played an essential role in nurturing Pfaff’s renewed interest in the technique, and was unique in its deliberate undertaking of the Japanese woodcut method (Breuer, p. 22). This technique utilizes water-based ink applied with a brush, unlike the Western method, in which oil-based ink is applied with a roller. Spearheaded by Brown, the undertaking lasted from 1982 to 1994 and gave American and European artists the opportunity to work with master woodblock printer Tadashi Toda, who was hired to produce the prints for the project. This collaboration began Pfaff’s association with Crown Point, and she continued to work with them until 1992.
