Monday, June 30, 2008

Artists Who Inspire Me: Chiura Obata

Today, I received a wonderful gift from a friend - a book on Chiura Obata's work! Chiura Obata, who was a professor of art at the University of California, Berkeley, was one of more than 100,000 Japanese Americans forcefully relocated from their homes and communities to internment camps in 1942. While there, he taught art classes and kept up his artwork, painting beautiful and haunting scenes even in the midst of being incarcerated. The book I have has more than 100 of Obata's sketches, sumi paintings, and watercolors from his internment period, along with letters and interviews. His art is a testimony to his artistic genius and undefeated spirit despite his circumstances.

Here's some of his work...

Topaz Mountains (Chiura Obata)


Topaz War Relocation Center by Moonlight (Chiura Obata)


Dawn, Knight's Ferry, Stanislaus County (Chiura Obata)


Evening Moon (Chiura Obata)

3 comments:

mike r baker said...

Very beautiful stuff. Thanks for sharing that. xoxo

Anonymous said...

Great stuff. Maybe you have not visited the following site yet:

http://obata.wilderness.net/

Nicely put together.

Lactose Intoler-Art said...

Really cool! I found your blog by googling this artist. I love "Dawn, Knight's Ferry, Stanislaus County," because it reminds me of Oklahoma at that time, but kind of mixed with Japanese traditional style. So interesting.

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