Sumi-e painting of blue flowers, by Chiura Obata, Topaz, 1940s

Chiura Obata was truly a master artist, and his skill is on full display in this beautiful Sumi-E style painting of a flower. Obata loved nature, and it was one of the biggest subjects in his paintings. This simple yet elegant art work shows his command of color and control over the brush. Obata's art was a great tool for education and expression.

A color sumi-e painting of morning glories. The image depicts two fully-bloomed flowers, one partially-bloomed flower, and four buds. The morning glory flowers are painted with blue petals and the three-lobed leaves are green. A reddish brown color is used to accent the leaves and stems. The morning glory is a popular ornamental flower that is known to bloom in the morning and close in the afternoon, and has been used frequently in Japanese art to denote the summer. Chiura Obata (1885-1975) created this while in a Japanese American prison camp during World War II and his signature and red gagō-in (artist seal) stamp appear in the lower right corner.

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.

Currently not on view