Chiura Obata turned an incarceration camp into an art school.
During WWII, he was imprisoned, and still taught art behind barbed wire with nearly 900 students.
Born on this day in 1885, he showed that creativity was perseverance.
Full story ↓
quietamericans.com/chiura-obata
#ChiuraObata #WWII
When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking.”
― #ArthurConanDoyle
background by #ChiuraObata
#collage
Chiura Obata (Japanese-American, 1885-1975) - Regulations (1943)
#chiuraobata
#art
#painting
#japaneseart
#americanart
I had a good friend who spent his time in the Japanese Internment Camps. We should never forget what was done to US citizens, sadly being mirrored today. Racism is Racism.
G
A young Japanese woman stand with hands clasped together at her waist in front a tree with white blossoms. A multi-shade brown stripe silk kimono with red obi belt decorated with floral patterns. Her dark brown hair is pulled back into a tight bun. Toe socks and thick sandals with red strap peek out from under the kimono. Born in Okayama, Japan, Chiura Obata immigrated to San Francisco in 1903. He did not return to Japan until his father’s funeral in 1928. With this large-scale painting, begun on this trip, he also returned to the Japanese styles and subjects he had studied as a teenager at Tokyo’s elite Nihon Bijutsuin (Japan Fine Arts Academy). Although much of Obata’s adult work is eclectic and personal in its artistic voice, that traditional academic training provided rare skills that made him a valuable teacher in the United States. He completed this painting in 1931 in San Francisco during a series of public art demonstrations. Obata ranks among the most significant California-based artists and Japanese American cultural leaders of the last century. He was successful at integrating Western practices into his art-making, and continued experimenting with new styles and methods throughout his seven-decade career. Today Obata is best known for majestic views of the American West, sketches based on hiking trips to capture what he called “Great Nature.” Every work is grounded in close observation, rendered with calligraphic brushstrokes and washes of color.
Maiden of Northern Japan by Chiura Obata (American, born Japan) - Mineral pigments on silk / 1931 - Crocker Art Museum (Sacramento, California) #womeninart #silkart #portraitofawoman #chiuraobata #art #artwork #CrockerArtMuseum #painting #japaneseart #kimono #womensart #hangingscroll #obata #bskyart
