Y

Yamato-e. Japanese art

Yeats Jack Butler (1871–1957). Irish painter, graphic artist and writer, brother of W. B. Y.; he studied at the Westminster School of Art. Y. sought to capture the Irish scene in pen, watercolour and, late in life (from the 1930s), oil painting; he always tried to convey mood rather than describe in detail, and the increasing violence of his colours brought his style close to Expressionism. He was recognized as a great national painter only after World War II.

Yellow Book, The (1894–7). Ill. periodical to which many distinguished writers and artists – e.g. Henry James and Max Beerbohm – contributed, but particularly associated with the ‘decadents’ and ‘aesthetes’ of the period, e.g. Beardsley, Oscar Wilde and Rolfe.

Yoakum Joseph (1886–1972). African-American artist, recognition of whom came after his death. His delicate works, in contrast to the bolder folk-art of his contemporaries, are mostly ‘naive’ panoramic landscapes, e.g. Mt. Cortezo; in Hureto Province near Mexico City Mexico (c. 1960–70).

Yoruba. Tribal people of S.W. Nigeria; the largest and one of the most artistically prolific in W. Africa. They are noted for wood carving, e.g. the masks of secret societies and religious cult objects, notably of the thunder god Shango. The classical tradition of Y. art was that of Ife.

Yoseki-tsukuri. Japanese art

Yüan. The Mongol dynasty of China (1260–1368), a major epoch of Chinese art. The painter Ch’ien Hsuan (c. 1235–after 1300) pioneered the return to archaic styles (e.g. of the T’ang period). Chao Meng-fu’s landscapes combined respect for the antique, using brush techniques of neglected Sung masters, with an original use of colour and spontaneity. He was followed by the ‘Four Masters’: Huang Kung Wang (1269–1354) whose magnificent Living in the Fu ch’un Mountains survives; Ni Tsan (1301–74), whose noble and austere manner was much copied; Wu Chen (1280–1354) and Wang Mend (d. 1385).