Preview our SPRING 2025 catalog, featuring more than 500 new books on art, photography, design, architecture, film, music and visual culture.
PRE-ECHO PRESS
Miyoko Ito: Heart of Hearts
Edited with text by Jordan Stein. Interview by Kate Horsfield.
Rich and evocative paintings from an underrecognized Japanese American abstractionist
A New York Times 'Best Art Books of 2023' pick
The result of several years of research, Heart of Hearts is the first book dedicated to the life and work of Japanese American artist Miyoko Ito. Ito was born in Berkeley, California to parents of Japanese descent and educated at the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied watercolor. A month before her graduation, in 1942, Ito was sent to the Tanforan Assembly Center, an internment camp south of San Francisco. Released several years before her husband, she transferred to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago but never graduated. Unlike the other "Allusive Abstractionists" with whom Ito was loosely associated, her geometric compositions often evoke landscapes, interiors and the human body. Irregular forms are rendered in layers of paint applied horizontally, creating an ombré effect reminiscent of a sun over the horizon. Working on one canvas at a time, her technical precision was reflected in her slow working process, painting in her studio from sunrise to sunset, often seven days a week. "I have no place to take myself except painting," she confided in a 1978 interview, "it has been my biggest life-giving force." While Ito's paintings have recently been the subject of critically acclaimed exhibitions at Matthew Marks Gallery, Artists Space and the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, her elegant and mysterious abstractions were and are scarcely known beyond Chicago, where she spent much of her adult life and made a career. Assembled by Pre-Echo Press and Jordan Stein—curator of Ito's first two solo institutional exhibitions in nearly 40 years—Heart of Hearts features over 100 full-color plates, archival materials, a 1978 interview with the artist and a 5,000-word biographical essay that contextualizes Ito's practice and aims to afford the artist her proper place within a history of postwar American art. Miyoko Ito (1918–83) was born in Berkeley, California, to Japanese parents. As a young girl, she spent several years with her mother and sister in Japan, where she first experimented with calligraphy and painting. Ito participated in the 1975 Whitney Biennial and was honored with a retrospective exhibition at the Renaissance Society in 1980. Her work is represented in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Featured image is reproduced from 'Miyoko Ito: Heart of Hearts.'
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
The New York Times: Arts
Jason Farago
More than a refoundation of a critically important American artist, this book is a labor of love from Stein and the painter Matt Connors, who’s published it through his own imprint.
The New York Times: Arts
Jason Farago
More than a refoundation of a critically important American artist, this book is a labor of love from Stein and the painter Matt Connors, who’s published it through his own imprint.
Frieze
Vanesa Peterson
Neither a monograph nor a catalogue raisonné – the editors note, for example, that they were only allowed to photograph nine of the 18 works contained in one private collection – Heart of Hearts is a true testament to its publishers. It might seem early to call it, but I doubt there will be a better art book released in 2024.
The World of Interiors
Kitty Grady
An experience of flicking, thinking and moving through, 'Heart of Hearts' gets right to the core of the artist, and maybe even further.
The Art Newspaper
Beth Williamson
Miyoko Ito’s intriguing merger of internal and external space gets proper recognition and a fresh look in this visual feast.
STATUS: Out of stock
Temporarily out of stock pending additional inventory.
FORMAT: Pbk, 9.5 x 11.5 in. / 460 pgs / 160 color / 13 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $75.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $110 ISBN: 9798889929499 PUBLISHER: Pre-Echo Press AVAILABLE: 3/5/2024 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: Out of stock TERRITORY: NA LA ASIA
Published by Pre-Echo Press. Edited with text by Jordan Stein. Interview by Kate Horsfield.
Rich and evocative paintings from an underrecognized Japanese American abstractionist
A New York Times 'Best Art Books of 2023' pick
The result of several years of research, Heart of Hearts is the first book dedicated to the life and work of Japanese American artist Miyoko Ito. Ito was born in Berkeley, California to parents of Japanese descent and educated at the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied watercolor. A month before her graduation, in 1942, Ito was sent to the Tanforan Assembly Center, an internment camp south of San Francisco. Released several years before her husband, she transferred to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago but never graduated. Unlike the other "Allusive Abstractionists" with whom Ito was loosely associated, her geometric compositions often evoke landscapes, interiors and the human body. Irregular forms are rendered in layers of paint applied horizontally, creating an ombré effect reminiscent of a sun over the horizon. Working on one canvas at a time, her technical precision was reflected in her slow working process, painting in her studio from sunrise to sunset, often seven days a week. "I have no place to take myself except painting," she confided in a 1978 interview, "it has been my biggest life-giving force."
While Ito's paintings have recently been the subject of critically acclaimed exhibitions at Matthew Marks Gallery, Artists Space and the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, her elegant and mysterious abstractions were and are scarcely known beyond Chicago, where she spent much of her adult life and made a career. Assembled by Pre-Echo Press and Jordan Stein—curator of Ito's first two solo institutional exhibitions in nearly 40 years—Heart of Hearts features over 100 full-color plates, archival materials, a 1978 interview with the artist and a 5,000-word biographical essay that contextualizes Ito's practice and aims to afford the artist her proper place within a history of postwar American art.
Miyoko Ito (1918–83) was born in Berkeley, California, to Japanese parents. As a young girl, she spent several years with her mother and sister in Japan, where she first experimented with calligraphy and painting. Ito participated in the 1975 Whitney Biennial and was honored with a retrospective exhibition at the Renaissance Society in 1980. Her work is represented in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
