Teruko Yokoi

 was a Japanese artist, most known for her abstract paintings.
Early life and education.
Yokoi was born in 1924 in Nagoya, Aichi, and soon after moved to Tsushima, Japan. In 1947, she painted portraits of several U.S. Army officers' wives, including Jean Barnett Alexander, the wife of Lt. John A. Alexander. In the late 40s she studied with the Impressionist painter Takanori Kinoshita in Tokyo. After winning prizes in the Issuikai and Nitten Exhibitions between 1949 and 1951, she moved to the United States in 1953, and studied at the California School of Fine Arts (now San Francisco Art Institute). In New York she studied with Hans Hofmann, and with Julian Levi at the Art Students League. In New York her style shifted away from objective Impressionism, becoming increasingly abstract.
Career.
As of 2010, Yokoi has held almost 80 solo exhibitions since 1954. She has held exhibitions at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, the Seibu Art Forum, and the Galerie Kornfeld in Bern, among others. She has won prizes at the Philadelphia Annual Exhibition in 1957, the Washington Biennale, and the San Francisco annual art exhibition. In November 2004, the Teruko Yokoi Hinagashi Museum was founded in Ena, Gifu, and in 2008, the Yokoi Teruko Fuji Museum of Art was founded in Fuji, Shizuoka.
In 2014, at 90, Yokoi created works for a benefit exhibition, with the proceeds from the paintings going to UNESCO Biosphere Entlebuch."
Personal life.
Yokoi married famous painter Sam Francis, with whom she had a daughter.
Yokoi died on 28 October 2020, aged 96.