YAMADA JULIANE

Juliane Yamada portraits chart a path from Illinois to Tokyo and Europe. Born in the 1940s in Springfield, Illinois, she won first place in an art competition at sixteen. The award included a college scholarship. She then completed a BA and graduate work at the University of Arkansas. In 1970, she held her first exhibition and soon began teaching at Revard Junior College in Florida.

A move to Tokyo dramatically expanded her practice and life. There, she worked as a graphic artist at Obata Studios and, meanwhile, modelled for Seiko. She also studied with illustrator and printmaker Tsuyoshi Yayanagi and travelled widely in Southeast Asia. After she married Tetsuo Yamada, a Japanese citizen, she relocated to St. Vincent. Consequently, she produced drawings and paintings on West Indian life and exhibited them in 1977. In the late 1970s, she moved to Europe and, thereafter, specialised in portraits of children. Notably, the United Nations selected several of these works for the “Children of the World” exhibition. It also added them to its permanent collection. She also portrayed leading Asian performers, including actor Ryo Tamura and kabuki legend Ichikawa Ennosuke III. In these portraits, she captured both full costume and intimate make-up scenes.

Throughout her career, Yamada worked chiefly in watercolour and pencil. Moreover, she created limited-edition lithographs on handmade rice paper. She layered each image carefully to preserve the subtleties of sumi-ink and graphite. As a result, the textures feel rich yet precise. Her subjects range from children to stage icons, yet a gentle humanity links them all. She died in 2020. Today, Hanga Ten presents Juliane Yamada portraits and watercolours for collectors who value sensitivity, craft, and straightforward storytelling.