Chiura Obata: Select Works

September 28, 2023 to January 6, 2024

Chiura Obata: Select Works features woodblock prints by Obata (1885 – 1975), one of the most significant Japanese-American artists working on the West Coast in the last century. An immigrant to the United States in 1903, Obata’s seven-decade career as an artist is marked by his blending of traditional Japanese sumi-e brush painting with Modernist watercolor techniques, creating expressive renditions of the natural world. In 1927, Obata visited Yosemite National Park and the Sierra Nevada, resulting in approximately 100 drawings which he later translated into color woodblock prints.

Six such prints are on display at BMoA, generously loaned by the Yosemite Museum. Obata has shown at several museums, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the de Young museum in San Francisco. His work is included in permanent collections worldwide, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum. 

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