painting

Object Details

Description

A black and white sumi-e painting of a tree by Chiura Obata (1885-1975) at Topaz Japanese American prison camp during World War II. The image is somewhat abstract with a gnarled tree with a single branch of foliage in front of rocks or mountains. The back of the image is labeled “Chiura Obata sensei.”

Born Zoroku Obata in Okayama-ken, Japan in 1885, Obata moved to California in 1903 and was one of the earliest Japanese artists to live and work in the United States. Obata was the first artist of Japanese descent to be a faculty member at UC Berkeley, where he started teaching in 1932. In 1942 he and his family were removed from Berkeley and imprisoned at the Tanforan temporary detention center and Topaz Japanese American incarceration camp under Executive Order 9066. At Tanforan, Obata started an art school with George Matsusaburo Hibi which he continued upon transfer to Topaz, teaching hundreds of students and creating a large body of artwork depicting everyday life in the camps and surrounding landscapes. Obata became a naturalized citizen in 1954, a year after retiring as Professor Emeritus from UC Berkeley. He spent the rest of his life traveling widely, lecturing and demonstrating Japanese brush painting. Obata is most well-known for his signature style of painting which blends Japanese and Western techniques and his large-scale landscapes. He also created an award-winning series of color woodblock prints at the Takamizawa Print Works in Japan inspired by his 1927 trip to Yosemite National Park and the Sierra Nevada. Chiura Obata died on October 6, 1975 at age 89.

Location

Currently not on view

Credit Line

Gift of Koho Yamamoto

ID Number

2016.0152.20

accession number

2016.0152

catalog number

2016.0152.20

Object Name

painting

Physical Description

paper (overall material)

ink (overall material)

painted (overall production method/technique)

Measurements

overall: 10 1/2 in x 14 1/4 in; 26.67 cm x 36.195 cm

See more items in

Military and Society: Armed Forces History, Japanese American

National Museum of American History

Record ID

nmah_1812573

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746b2-ac26-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa