#japaneseamericanartist

[harvardfineartslib]

“I have no place to take myself except painting.” – Miyoko Ito, 1978.

Miyoko Ito (1918–1983) was a Japanese American painter, born in Berkeley, California, and was active in Chicago where she studied at the Art Institute of Chicago.

When the World War II began in 1941 in the United States with the attack on Pearl Harbor, Ito was studying art at University of California, Berkeley. She was a senior scheduled to graduate in May 1942. In April 1942, Ito married Harry Ichiyasu to avoid being separated during the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans. Her husband was president of the senior class of the Japanese constituency at UC Berkeley. They were married on April 11th, but by the end of April they were sent to Tanforan internment camp near San Francisco, and later sent to Topaz under an Executive Order signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt. Ito received her diploma while she was in the internment camp, then received a grant to attend a graduate program at Smith College. She stayed there for one year before going on to study at the Art Institute of Chicago. Ito said she cried when she opened her diploma. She graduated with highest honors.

Miyoko Ito was hardly unknown during her lifetime, though she gained some attention and was granted residency fellowships at MacDowell in New Hampshire. It was there that she experienced “the meaning of full expression in the conductive environment,” she wrote in her “Plan of Work” in 1983. She continued, “I would like to escape the heretofore stifling condition of low ceiling, dim daylight, and inadequate floor space” of her bedroom studio in her house.

This publication, “Miyoko Ito: Heart of Hearts” is the first book dedicated to the life and work of Miyoko Ito, long overdue for this artist.

Image 1: Front cover featuring “Island in the Sun”, 1978, Oil on canvas, 38”x 33”

Image 2: Portrait of Miyoko Ito by Mary Baber, 1975

Image 3: “Aura”, 1966, Oil on canvas, 50”x 45”

Miyoko Ito : heart of hearts Pre-Echo, 2023. 452 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), portraits ; 30 cm English HOLLIS number: 99157645381703941

[pamelaaminou]

Monday's Photography Inspiration - Yumiko Izu

Yumiko Izu, a renowned Japanese-American photographer, has spent her life dedicated to the art of photography. Her work has captivated audiences around the world, not only for its technical brilliance but also for its deep connection to the natural world. Through her lens, she has brought forth the quiet and profound beauty of the earth, immortalising moments in time with grace and…

[hoshihana13]

Summer sale of my collages and small artworks! I will be uploading pieces daily starting with this 10 x 12 inch collage titled, “Blue Heart Star.” All items available in my Etsy store. Click on link in bio. Original, one of a kind art made to create peace, love and friendship💙💙💙 Followers of my Instagram account can receive special discount codes please dm me if you have an artwork you are interested in. 💙📘📭🧿💎🗾⛴✈️🚆#blueart #blueartwork #blue #blueaesthetic #bluecollage #collage #collageart #collageartworks #collageartistoninstagram #collageartwork #collageartists #collageartist #collageartistsoninstagram #japaneseblue #japaneseblueandwhite #japaneseamericanartist #japaneseamericanartists https://www.instagram.com/p/B0g9ANRBO5F/?igshid=xiu40vs4ak8n

[archivesofamericanart]

Miyé Matsukata (1922-1981) was a jewelry designer and silversmith in Boston, Mass. She worked in her jewelry firm Janiye in Boston from 1950 until her death. Her papers include biographical material, correspondence, subject files, exhibition files, photographs and slides, numerous sketchbooks and sketches of her jewelry designs and travels abroad, writings, sales records for jewelry orders, audio-visual material, and printed material.

[boxblur--ccg]

From one day to the next… art installer #drewgrasso is hard at work with his crew and ours @cclarkgallery to take down the exhibit of @wxzhang25 and prepare the shows of Al Farrow, Masami Teraoka, and Zeina Barakeh. Many thanks to #alfarrow and his sons #davidfarrow and #ericfarrow for added assistance and to #aileenmangan for working on a Monday. The exhibits of work by @masamiteraoka #alfarrow and @zeina.barakeh open Saturday, April 23, from 2-5 @cclarkgallery Please wear a mask and come to hear the artists’ remarks at 3:30. #willworkforartists #masamiteraoka #alfarrow #zeinabarakeh #sculpture #artfromweapons #artforpeace #socialjusticeart #painting #printmaking #video #politicalart #japaneseamericanartist #asianamericanartist #artaboutrussianaggressioninukraine #artaboutwar #swordstoplowshares #byzantine #triptychs #swanlake #lastswanlake #peaceforukraine #artfrommunitions #hawaiiartist #bayareaartist #contemporaryart (at Catharine Clark Gallery) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cci95kcp34M/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[tracivwcreations]

I'm gearing up for the release of my new book this fall, Ruth Asawa: A Sculpting Life written by Joan Schoettler and illustrated by me from @pelicanpub with a series of posts showing some behind the scenes peeks and much more. Check out my first post about getting the job in the first place on my website. Link in profile. #RuthAsawa #RuthAsawaASculptingLife #kidlitart #childrensbooks #childrensbookillustration #kidsillustration #childrensbooks #process #picturebook #biography #artist #artistsoninstagram #japaneseamerican #japaneseamericanartist #sculptor #wiresculpture #bookcover #blogpost #linkinbio #illustration #bookillustration #picturebookbiography #picturebookillustration #picturebookart

[imaginethatdesign-blog]

We're excited to have received the signed contract from @pelicanpub to illustrate another #picturebook. Ruth Asawa: A Sculpting Life. It will be a fun challenge. #contract #newproject #biography #illustration #process #artist #sculptor #japaneseamericanartist #japaneseamerican #internmentcamps #illustration #fountainlady #wiresculpture #wirecrochet

[harvardfineartslib]

Happy Birthday to Isamu Noguchi who was born on this day in 1904.

Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) was one of the twentieth century’s most important and critically acclaimed sculptors. He created sculptures, gardens, furniture and lighting designs, ceramics, architecture, landscapes, and set designs with his own unique style of bold and modern aesthetics.

Noguchi was born in Los Angeles to Léonie Gilmour, a white American of mostly Irish descent born in Brooklyn, NY, and Yonejiro Noguchi, an influential Japanese writer of poetry, fiction, essays, and literary criticism in both English and Japanese. Noguchi moved to Japan with his mother at the age of two and lived there until the age of thirteen. In 1918, he returned alone to the United States to attend high school in Indiana. After high school, he moved to Connecticut and then to New York City to attend Columbia University, enrolling there as a premed student. He began taking evening sculpture classes at the Leonardo da Vinci School on the Lower East Side, and soon left the university to become a sculptor, supporting himself by making traditional portrait busts.

In 1926, Noguchi saw Constantin Brancusi’s work in an exhibition in New York. In 1927, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship and went to Paris to work in Brancusi’s studio. This experience profoundly changed his artistic direction, turning Noguchi toward modernism and abstraction.

This photo of the artist is from circa 1926 before he left for Paris. It shows the young artist looking at his work, which depicts a female nude in a traditional way. This work was later destroyed.

During the WWII, Noguchi became a political activist and co-founded Nisei Writers and Artists Mobilization for Democracy. He voluntarily entered the Poston concentration camp in Arizona and remained there for six months. (Summarized from Noguchi.org website)

Undine [destroyed] Noguchi, Isamu, 1904-1988, American [artist] American 1926 HOLLIS number: olvwork240109 Image title: Photo with artist [ca.1926]

This image is part of FAL’s Digital Images and Slides Collection (DISC), a collection of images digitized from secondary sources for use in teaching and learning. FAL does not own the original artworks represented in this collection, but you can find more information at HOLLIS Images.

[harvardfineartslib]

Ruth Asawa (1926 – 2013), best known for her looped wire sculptures, worked in a wide range of media, including drawing, painting, lithograph, ceramic, and public art. In the May 2022 issue of Artforum, Kaelen Wilson-Goldie writes in an article entitled “Productive Tensions” that “Asawa worked in a crowded constellation of artmaking modes.” 

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Asawa and her family were sent to internment camps all over the country. Her father was arrested, and Asawa faced unrelenting  prejudice and racism. After nearly completing her training at Milwaukee State Teachers College, Asawa learned that she would not be able to complete the student teaching requirement for her degree, because at the time no schools would allow a Japanese-American student teacher into their classrooms.

In a letter to her daughter Lanier, Asawa wrote, “I no longer want to nurse such wounds.” Then turning to her hands to work on sculpture, “I now want to wrap fingers cut by aluminum shavings, and hands scratched by wire.” To warn her daughter about the prejudice and violence her children may face, Asawa continued, “This attitude has forced me to become a citizen of the universe, by which I grow infinity smaller, than if I belonged to a family, or province, or race.” 

Image 1: Black and white photograph of Asawa drawing at her home. Photo: Bob Turner. 1990.

Image 2: Asawa teaching art to elementary school students in San Francisco. Photo: Laurence Cuneo. 1973.

You can find Artforum and many other periodicals in our Reading Room.

[harvardfineartslib]

This is a Part II of our posts on Yasuo Kuniyoshi.

After the Pearl Harbor bombing in 1941, Kuniyoshi, who was legally a Japanese citizen, was re-classified from “resident alien” to an “enemy alien” by the U.S. government. He had to surrender his camera, and his binoculars were confiscated. His bank account was frozen and his movements were restricted. He could not leave his apartment to teach at the Art Students League in the months after the Pearl Harbor, so his students went to his apartment for classes. But, Kuniyoshi was considered relatively fortunate compared to Japanese Americans and Japanese immigrants on the West Coast, who were ordered to leave their homes and forced to live in internment camps.

Kuniyoshi was undoubtedly the most famous Japanese artist living in the United States at that time, and he was awarded a first prize at the Carnegie International Exhibition during the war. Given the current climate, being singled out for a prize was “almost beyond belief” for Kuniyoshi.

In 1946, the U.S. State Department purchased Kuniyoshi’s Circus Girl Resting (1925) for an international exhibition entitled “Advancing American Art,” which attracted much criticism from conservative politicians and President Truman for its “communistic tendencies.” Kuniyoshi’s painting was singled out again and again as the most offensive work in the exhibition. Despite these odds, Kuniyoshi became the first living artist to receive a retrospective exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1948.

Kuniyoshi painted many works expressing his anti-war sentiments. But his position was complicated, and he hoped to apply for U.S. citizenship when the McCarran-Walter Act passed in 1952, which finally permitted the naturalization of Asian immigrants. However, before this could become reality, he passed away from a long battle with cancer in 1953.

Image 1: Circus Girl Resting, 1925 38 2/5 x 28 ½ in.

Image 2: Self-Portrait as a Photographer, 1924 20 ½ x 30 ¼ in.

Image 3: Squash, 1924 Pencil, pen, ink, and watercolor on paper 15 ¼ x 22 ¼ in.

The artistic journey of Yasuo Kuniyoshi Wolf, Tom (Tom M.) [author]   Washington, DC : Smithsonian American Art Museum, [2015] 175 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 29 cm English Issued in connection with an exhibition held Apr. 3-Aug. 30, 2015, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC. HOLLIS number: 990143714410203941

[harvardfineartslib]

The life and career of Yasuo Kuniyoshi (1889-1953) is reminiscent of the common immigrant’s tale of searching for opportunities in a new country, yet it is an exceptional story within the genre. Not only did Kuniyoshi defeat many odds after emigrating from his native Japan, but he was someone who identified as an American, but could not become a U.S. citizen due to legal restrictions of the time. Also, while Kuniyoshi had an remarkable career, his work is little known today. In 1948, he was the first living artist to be given a retrospective exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Very active in various artists’ groups and organizations, Kuniyoshi became an officer of the American Artists’ Congress in 1936, eventually becoming president and serving in this role until 1944. He was also appointed the first president of Artists Equity and the president of An American Group, Inc.

In 1906, at the age of 16, Kuniyoshi left his home country, Japan in the hope of making a new life in America. In Japan, Kuniyoshi had studied at a school for weaving and learned traditional Japanese decorative arts and how to draw. While attending public high school in Los Angeles, a teacher told him that he had artistic talent. He worked a series of odd jobs from picking fruit in the field to working as a hotel bellhop while attending the Los Angeles School of Art and Design. Eventually, he moved to New York and continued his studies in art.

Kuniyoshi’s time in the U.S. coincides with the spread of anti-immigrant sentiment throughout the country, from the eugenics movement to the Immigration Act of 1924, which drastically cut the number of new immigrants allowed annually and practically banned all immigration from East Asia. In 1919, Kuniyoshi married an American woman, Kathrine Schmidt, for which her parents disowned her and did not speak to the couple for six years. His Boy Stealing Fruit (1923) may be interpreted as “an allegory of the marriage, where a sly boy sneaks a juicy peach from a distinctly “early Americana” bowl.” (E. Brown: pp. 12) His sense of fear, perhaps from anti-immigrant sentiment, may be felt in his other works such as Boy Frightened by Snake (1921-1922) and Child frightened by Water (1924).

Stay tuned for the Part II of Kuniyoshi’s life and career.

Image 1: Boy Stealing Fruit, 1923 20 x 30 in.

Image 2: Child Frightened by Water, 1924 30 1/8 x 24 1/16 in.

Image 3: Self-Portrait, 1918 20 x 16 in

The artistic journey of Yasuo Kuniyoshi Wolf, Tom (Tom M.) [author]   Washington, DC : Smithsonian American Art Museum, [2015] 175 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 29 cm English Issued in connection with an exhibition held Apr. 3-Aug. 30, 2015, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC. HOLLIS number: 990143714410203941

[hoshihana13]

“Cells and Petals, “ is an original work of art. It is comprised of acrylic ink, paint, and paper cut outs of planets, cells and a Buddhist paper prayer petal decoupaged onto a plank of wood. Buddhist paper prayer petals are dispersed during Buddhist ceremonies on occasion in Japan.  The ideas behind this artwork are about how the workings of our bodies on a cellular level are related to the workings of the universe on a cosmic level. I have only about 23 works of these small works available and will continue to upload them daily. See link in bio to see more info. 😊#affordableart #smallartwork #collage #smallartworks #decoupage #collageartworks #collageartists #collageartistsoninstagram #collageartists #japaneseamericanartist #japaneseamericanart #japaneseamericanart https://www.instagram.com/p/B1FxGaGB4Ca/?igshid=zv8j3id0ozb6

[hoshihana13]

This collage is a stream of consciousness meditation of the perfection of imperfection. There are fish, happy faces, flowers, sequins, shooting stars, vintage Japanese origami papers, all mish mashed in one little picture -an odd mixture of experiences and intersections. Navigating through daily life we encounter twists and turns- how do we choose the route that will allow us the outcome that is in the path of a cosmic star?😊 This collage is now available in my Etsy shop link in bio. I’m posting artwork from the past and working on new projects behind the scenes. These small collages were experiments mostly created in the early 2000’s while living in my mountain retreat home and are all priced to sell. #affordableart #collage #smallart #smallcollage #etsyart #etsyartists #etsyartistsofinstagram #etsyartist #etsycollage #etsysellersofinstagram #etsy #etsyseller #collageart #collagework #collageartworks #collageartists #collageartist #collageartistoninstagram #japaneseamericanartist #japaneseamericanart https://www.instagram.com/p/B04A0G2hYfy/?igshid=s4tscctp2mng

[hoshihana13]

I made this collage around the time I started to learn how to surf more regularly in 2009. It’s called “Pirate Summer.” Today’s addition to my Etsy shop🤓link in bio. Super affordable & free shipping! #pirate #summer #skullart #skullartwork #collage #collageart #collage_art #collageartwork #japanesepaper #japaneseamericanartist #japaneseamericanart #heart #washi #smallart #artistsofinstagram #artistofinstagram #etsy #etsyart #etsyartist #etsyartistsofinstagram #freeshipping https://www.instagram.com/p/B0thKfzBANV/?igshid=9w0210ptj8nx

[hoshihana13]

Today’s item from my #etsy shop: Balance - Japanese design inspired small collage on paper - framed original. Balance in life is a constant state of adjustment, staying calm and flexible in each moment, staying centered. That’s what this piece is about. 🤓 item available for $125 including domestic shipping in US. #japaneseamericanartist #japaneseinspiredart #collageart #collage #collageartwork #etsysellersofinstagram #etsyseller #etsyart #hoshihanaart #hoshihanashop https://www.instagram.com/p/B0jkvhUh2g_/?igshid=iagyzic8c9p6

[tracivwcreations]

I’m thrilled to be able to share a few peeks at the book I just finished illustrating for @pelicanpub, Ruth Asawa: a Sculpting Life by Joan Schoettler. A great way to celebrate women on #internationwomensday 1 of 3 #ruthasawa #biography #sculpture #fineart #japaneseamerican #japaneseamericanartist #kidlitart #illustration #childrensillustration #picturebookillustration #childrensbookillustration #best_of_illustrations #art #artistofinstagram instagram #kidsbookillustration #childrensart #childrensbooks #illustratorsoninsragram #illustratedbiography