Chiura Obata

Chiura Obata
Professor Chiura Obata painting in 1944
Born
Zoroku Sato

(1885-11-18)November 18, 1885
DiedOctober 6, 1975(1975-10-06) (aged 89)
Berkeley, California
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Painter, professor
Years active1899–1975
Spouse(s)Haruko Kohashi
(1892–1989; m. 1912)
ChildrenKimio George (son, 1912–1986);
Fujiko (daughter, 1915–?);
Gyo (son, 1923–2022);
Lillian Yuri (daughter, 1927–2018)
Notes

Chiura Obata (小圃 千浦, Obata Chiura, November 18, 1885 – October 6, 1975) [2] was a well-known Japanese-American artist and popular art teacher.[3] A self-described "roughneck",[4] Obata went to the United States in 1903, at age 17. After initially working as an illustrator and commercial decorator, he had a successful career as a painter, following a 1927 summer spent in the Sierra Nevada, and was a faculty member in the Art Department at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1932 to 1954, interrupted by World War II,[5] when he spent a year in an internment camp. He nevertheless emerged as a leading figure in the Northern California art scene and as an influential educator, teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, for nearly twenty years and acting as founding director of the art school at the Topaz internment camp.[4] After his retirement, he continued to paint and to lead group tours to Japan to see gardens and art.

  1. ^ Loran, E.; Carr, D.; Dykstra, Andrew; McCray, J.A.; Susumu; Nakamura, W. (September 1978). "Chiura Obata, Art: Berkeley". University of California: In Memoriam, September 1978. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  2. ^ Ross, Michael Elsohn (2000). Nature Art With Chiura Obata. illustrations by Wendy Smith. Minneapolis: Millbrook Press. p. 44. ISBN 1-57505-378-0. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
  3. ^ "Great Nature: The Transcendent Landscapes of Chiura Obata". de Young Fine Art Museum of San Francisco. September–December 2000. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
  4. ^ a b "CHIURA OBATA (1885-1975) - Artists - Sullivan Goss - An American Gallery, Santa Barbara's Finest Art Gallery". www.sullivangoss.com. Retrieved 2019-12-02.
  5. ^ "Yosemite Views from Berkeley". University of California, Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive. September–December 2005. Archived from the original on 18 June 2010. Retrieved 19 September 2015.