Obata Woodblock Prints and Paintings Featured in New Exhibition

Art show at the Merced Multicultural Arts Center through September 7

The Fresno Bee - June 23, 2002

A major exhibition of paintings and woodblock prints at the Merced Multicultural Arts Center surveys the American career of Chiura Obata, the late Japan-born art professor at University of California at Berkeley.

The exhibit focuses on a series of artworks Obata developed as result of a trip to the Yosemite National Park, a visit he would later characterize as "the greatest harvest for my whole life and future in painting."

At the heart of the show are examples from Obata's "World Landscape Series," a portfolio of 35 woodblock prints Obata created to introduce his works on Yosemite and the high Sierra to the general audience.

Obata entrusted the job of reproducing his watercolors to artisans in Tokyo. Thirty-two wood-carvers, eight artists and 40 printers took 18 months to complete the project. Each of the finished works involved 120 to 205 hand printings.

In the 1930s, the University of California selected Obata to introduce the first course in Japanese painting in an American university. His university career was interrupted by World War II when he and his family were interned in a relocation center in Topaz, Utah.

In Topaz, Obata promptly opened an art school which ultimately involved 16 instructors and several hundred students.

He also produced paintings and sketches depicting life at Topaz, many of which are included in the exhibition.

The Obata show is augmented by an exhibit which explores the World War II internment experience of members of the Merced community. Both shows continue through Sept. 7. Many of the artworks are featured in the books "Obata's Yosemite," published by the Yosemite Association, and "Topaz Moon," by Kimi Kodani Hill, the artist's granddaughter, available at the center. The Sonora Art Center devotes a related exhibition to Obata's works on Yosemite, through July 31.