Asian American Art

Media - 1984.92 - SAAM-1984.92_1-000001 - 7823

Bumpei Usui, Portrait of Yasuo Kuniyoshi in His Studio, 1930, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Regis Corporation, 1984.92

SAAM’s collection includes many remarkable artworks that reflect the profound and longstanding contributions of Asian American and Asian diasporic artists in the United States. The study of this art contributes to a fuller understanding of the diverse people and influences that have shaped our national culture and raises important questions about what is meant by “American art.” 

The term “Asian American” was coined by activists in 1968 to bring together varied Asian ethnic groups as a unified political entity, while rejecting colonialist labels such as “oriental.” Its meaning and usage continue to shift and be challenged as discussions about race and identity in the U.S. evolve. SAAM approaches Asian American art not as a stable category but as an expansive and changeable field that relates to a vast assortment of identities, ethnicities, and modes of artistic production.  

Art by Asian Americans, especially works made before 1960, remains underrepresented in major museum collections and art historical scholarship. SAAM is making strategic acquisitions to better capture the historical depth of Asian American art and to reflect a greater array of experiences, traditions, and communities. U.S. artists who trace their heritage variously to East Asia, Southeast Asia, Southwest Asia, South Asia and the Pacific all have a place in the collection at SAAM. 

SAAM’s collection includes paintings created in the 1930s and 1940s by Dong KingmanYasuo KuniyoshiChiura Obata, and Alfonso Ossorio; mid-twentieth-century works of abstraction by Leo AminoYayoi KusamaIsamu NoguchiKay Sekimachi, and Reuben Tam; and works charting developments in American art since the 1970s by Ching Ho ChengTiffany ChungChitra GaneshNancy HomByron KimMaya LinHung LiuRoger ShimomuraDo Ho SuhStephanie SyjucoTseng Kwong ChiZarina, and others. In addition to holding iconic works of art by Nam June Paik, the museum houses the archives of this groundbreaking electronic media artist. SAAM’s contemporary craft collection, displayed at its Renwick Gallery, includes important works by Steven Young LeeGeorge NakashimaToshiko TakaezuAkio Takamori, and Wanxin Zhang, among others. 

Selected Works

Media - 2002.23 - SAAM-2002.23_1 - 81981
Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii
Date1995
fifty-one channel video installation (including one closed-circuit television feed), custom electronics, neon lighting, steel and wood; color, sound
Not on view
Media - 2010.23 - SAAM-2010.23_1 - 73854
LYAM 3D
Date2008
digital animation, color, silent; 04:00 minutes
Not on view
Media - 2010.2A-E - SAAM-2010.2A-E_1 - 73438
Chemical Balance III
Date2009
prescription pill bottles, acrylic mirrors, epoxy, fluorescent lights
Not on view
Media - 2017.44.1 - SAAM-2017.44.1_1 - 134168
ONE
Date1970, printed 1998
gelatin silver print
Not on view
Media - 2021.72 - SAAM-2021.72_1 - 143066
Warrior with Color Face
Date2009
high-fired clay with glaze
On view
Media - 2015.17 - 2015.17_13a.jpg - 122633
Vase with Landscape and Dinosaurs
Date2014
porcelain with pigment and glaze
On view
Media - 2006.26.8 - SAAM-2006.26.8_1 - 69099
Anagama
Dateca. 1980s
glazed stoneware
On view
Media - 1991.121 - SAAM-1991.121_2 - 118461
Conoid Bench
Date1977
black walnut and hickory
On view
Media - 1986.6.50 - SAAM-1986.6.50_3 - 135165
Strong Woman and Child
Date1925
oil on canvas
On view
Media - 1979.53.34 - SAAM-1979.53.34_2 - 134744
Partial Evidences II
Date1973
acrylic on canvas
On view
Media - 1964.1.36 - SAAM-1964.1.36_1 - 69390
The Farm
Date1934
oil on canvas
On view
Media - 2014.16A-FF - SAAM-2014.16A-FF_1 - 119357
Black & White
Date1993
oil on wood panels
Not on view
Media - 1993.70 - SAAM-1993.70_1 - 52086
Double Portrait
Date1944
watercolor and black ink on paper
Not on view
Media - 1986.6.93 - SAAM-1986.6.93_2 - 87801
Fakirs
Date1951
oil on canvas
Not on view
Media - 2021.6 - SAAM-2021.6_1 - 142983
Kiss
Date1971
gouache and ink on rag board
Not on view
Media - 2019.32.3 - SAAM-2019.32.3_1 - 138046
Fire
Dateca. 1954
watercolor, pastel, ink, tempera on paper
Not on view
Media - 2018.22 - SAAM-2018.22_1 - 137335
Radiator, Corridor/​Ground Floor, 348 West 22nd Street, New…
Date2013
polyester fabric, stainless steel armature, and display case with LED lighting
Not on view
Media - 2021.14.3 - SAAM-2021.14.3_1 - 143936
Disneyland, California, from the series East Meets West
Date1979, printed 2013
gelatin silver print
Not on view
Media - 2021.31.1 - SAAM-2021.31.1_1 - 142602
The Star-Spangled Banner (Third Verse)
Date2020
charcoal on paper
Not on view
Media - 1979.53.18 - SAAM-1979.53.18_1 - 5373
Katchina
Date1973
oil on canvas
Not on view
Media - 2012.10 - SAAM-2012.10_1 - 79967
Nut Street Station
Daten.d.
watercolor
Not on view
Media - 2006.20 - SAAM-2006.20_1 - 66616
Zen for TV
Date1963, 1976 version
manipulated television set; black and white, silent
Not on view
Media - 1996.34A-D - SAAM-1996.34A-D_1 - 81767
The Ocean is the Dragon’s World
Date1995
oil on canvas, painted wood panel, metal support rod, and metal bird cage with wood and ceramic appendages
Not on view
Media - 1968.52.9 - SAAM-1968.52.9_1 - 68569
The Shores of Light
Date1960
oil on canvas
Not on view
Media - 1972.183 - SAAM-1972.183_1 - 62666
Nagare VII
Date1970
woven nylon monofilament
Not on view
Media - 2019.32.4 - SAAM-2019.32.4_1 - 138048
Forlorn Spot
Date1953
watercolor, pastel, ink on paper
Not on view
A round grey sculpture with a hole in the center  by Isamu Noguchi
Grey Sun
Date1967
Arni marble
Not on view
Media - 2000.76.24 - SAAM-2000.76.24_2 - 134723
El Capitán
Date1931
color woodcut on paper
Not on view
Media - 1986.88.1 - SAAM-1986.88.1_2 - 130130
Seedling
Date1953
wood: sabicu and ebony
On view
Media - 2008.38 - SAAM-2008.38_1 - 70131
Sanctuary at Western Sunset
Date1992
oil on canvas
Not on view
Media - 2014.42A-D - SAAM-2014.42A-D_1 - 116311
House of Many Rooms
Artist
Date1993
etchings on paper
Not on view
Media - 2016.26 - 2016.26_1a.jpg - 124930
Folding the Chesapeake
Date2015
fiberglass marbles
Not on view
Media - 2008.32.3 - SAAM-2008.32.3_1 - 72159
Hiroshima
Date2001
mixed media on paper
Not on view
Media - 1991.171 - SAAM-1991.171_1 - 11314
Diary: December 121941
Date1980
acrylic on canvas
Not on view

Related Artists

Dong Kingman
born Oakland, CA 1911-died New York City 2000
Media - J0001791_1b.jpg - 89295
Yasuo Kuniyoshi
born Okayama, Japan 1889-died New York City 1953

Painter and photographer of art. His languid women in repose from the 1930s are significant, but he also painted still lifes and landscapes. He was the first president of Artists Equity and cofounder of the American Artists Congress.

Media - portrait_image_114976.jpg - 138083
Chiura Obata
born Okayama-ken, Japan 1885-died Berkeley, CA 1975

Chiura Obata (1885-1975) was one of the most significant Japanese American artists working on the West Coast in the last century.

Alfonso Ossorio
born Manila, Philippines 1916-died New York City 1990
Leo Amino
born Taiwan, Japan (now Taiwan) 1911-died New York City 1989

Leo Amino—born in Taiwan in 1911 where his father was an agricultural consultant for the Japanese government—was reared in Tokyo.

Yayoi Kusama
born Matsumoto, Japan 1929
Isamu Noguchi
born Los Angeles, CA 1904-died New York City 1988
Media - portrait_image_113259.jpg - 90183
Kay Sekimachi
born San Francisco, CA 1926

Born in San Francisco, Kay Sekimachi studied at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland from 1946 to 1949.

Reuben Tam
born Kapaa, HI 1916-died Kapaa, HI 1991
Ching Ho Cheng
born Havana, Cuba 1946-died New York City 1989
Tiffany Chung
born Da Nang, Viet Nam 1969
Nancy Hom
born Toisan, China 1949
Byron Kim
born La Jolla, CA 1961
Maya Lin
born Athens, OH 1959
Hung Liu
born Changchun, China 1948-died Oakland, CA 2021
Roger Shimomura
born Seattle, WA 1939

Born in Washington. Painter of Japanese descent who has been a diligent arts educator most of his life.

Do Ho Suh
born Seoul, South Korea 1962
Stephanie Syjuco
born Manila, Philippines 1974
Tseng Kwong Chi
born Hong Kong, China 1950-died New York City 1990
Zarina
born Aligarh, India 1937-died London, England 2020
Media - portrait_image_114969.jpg - 134917
Nam June Paik
born Seoul, Korea 1932-died Miami Beach, FL 2006

Nam June Paik (1932–2006), internationally recognized as the "Father of Video Art," created a large body of work including video sculptures, installations, performances, videotapes and television productions.

Steven Young Lee
born Chicago, IL 1975
George Nakashima
born Spokane, WA 1905-died New Hope, PA 1990

"To build a small palace around here with a Japanese carpenter in the finest traditions …" is a dream George Nakashima would like to realize someday.

Toshiko Takaezu
born Pepeekeo, HI 1922-died Honolulu, HI 2011

Toshiko Takaezu studied at the University of Hawaii and at Cranbrook Academy in Michigan, where she also taught. She has been on the faculty of other institutions, including the Cleveland Institute of Art and Princeton University.

Akio Takamori
Japanese born Nobeoka, Japan 1950-died Seattle, WA 2017
Wanxin Zhang
born Changchun, China 1961

Videos

Exhibitions

A watercolor image of Grand Canyon.
Chiura Obata: American Modern
November 27, 2019March 13, 2020
Japanese-born artist Chiura Obata’s seemingly effortless synthesis of different art traditions defies the usual division between “East” and “West.” This exhibition presents the most comprehensive survey of his rich and varied body of work to date, from bold California landscape paintings to intimate drawings of his experiences of the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.
Tiffany Chung
Tiffany Chung: Vietnam, Past Is Prologue
March 15, 2019September 2, 2019
Through maps, videos, and paintings that highlight the voices and stories of former Vietnamese refugees, Tiffany Chung probes the legacies of the Vietnam War and its aftermath.
Woman standing next to blue hub sculpture
Do Ho Suh: Almost Home
March 16, 2018August 5, 2018
Do Ho Suh’s immersive architectural installations—unexpectedly crafted with ethereal fabric—explore the global nature of contemporary identity as well as memory, migration, and our ideas of home.
Sculpture Grey Sun by Isamu Noguchi
Isamu Noguchi, Archaic/​Modern
November 11, 2016March 18, 2017
Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988) was among the most innovative American sculptors of the twentieth century, creating works that were far ahead of his time. His design for Sculpture to Be Seen from Mars (1947) anticipates the space age by several decades. Yet Noguchi frequently found inspiration in ancient art and architecture, from Egyptian pyramids, to Buddhist temples and Zen gardens, to American Indian burial mounds. The exhibition Isamu Noguchi, Archaic/Modern explores how the ancient world shaped this artist’s innovative vision for the future.
Media - 1986.6.50 - SAAM-1986.6.50_3 - 135165
The Artistic Journey of Yasuo Kuniyoshi
April 2, 2015August 29, 2015
Kuniyoshi emigrated to America from Japan as a teenager, rising to prominence in the New York art world during the 1920s to become one of the most esteemed artists in America between the two world wars. He drew on American folk art, Japanese design and iconography and European modernism to create a distinctive visual style. Kuniyoshi defined himself as an American artist while at the same time remaining very aware that his Japanese origins played an important role in his identity and artistic practices.
Media - 2002.23 - SAAM-2002.23_1 - 81981
Nam June Paik: Global Visionary
December 13, 2012August 10, 2013
The artwork and ideas of the Korean-born artist Nam June Paik were a major influence on late twentieth-century art and continue to inspire a new generation of artists. Nam June Paik: Global Visionary offers an unprecedented view into the artist’s creative method by featuring key artworks that convey Paik’s extraordinary accomplishments as a major international artist as well as material drawn from the Nam June Paik Archive, which was acquired by the Smithsonian American Art Museum from the artist’s estate in 2009.
Media - 2008.32.2 - SAAM-2008.32.2_1 - 72158
The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps, 1942 – 1946
March 5, 2010January 30, 2011
The Art of Gaman showcases arts and crafts made by Japanese Americans in U.S. internment camps during World War II. Soon after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, all ethnic Japanese on the West Coast—more than two-thirds of whom were American citizens by birth—were ordered to leave their homes and move to ten inland internment camps for the duration of the war. While in these bleak camps, the internees used scraps and found materials to make furniture and other objects to beautify their surroundings. Arts and crafts became essential for simple creature comforts and emotional survival. These objects—tools, teapots, furniture, toys and games, musical instruments, pendants and pins, purses and ornamental displays—are physical manifestations of the art of gaman, a Japanese word that means to bear the seemingly unbearable with dignity and patience.

Stories

Close of up of clay statue with painted face
Sculptor Wanxin Zhang explores history, politics, and culture through clay
SAAM
Detail from a painting. Orange and blue organic shapes on a dark blue background.
10/15/2021
On the surprising friendship between artists Yayoi Kusama and Joseph Cornell
An illustration of a young woman with dark hair weaving holding a shuttle in her hand and is sitting a loom, weaving.
09/29/2021
Celebrating Kay Sekimachi’s 95th birthday with a comic about her life and work
Two visitors wearing cloth masks stand in front of the "Electronic Superhighway" installation. One is pointing at the artwork.
Reflecting on Paik's innovative installation with a new installment of the video series American Art Moments
A bridge over water.
05/18/2021
A critical look at artistic production and the unequal distribution of benefits during the New Deal period
Grace Yasumura
A photograph of an artwork
Checking in with the artist who creates lively and unexpected sculptures from clay.
A photograph of a very colorful face mask
Julia Kwon’s interactive art projects facilitate solidarity and community
A watercolor of a town with a dust storm
05/27/2020
A Conversation about American Art and Anti-Asian Sentiment in the Age of COVID-19
A watercolor image of a lake with mountains in the background.
04/27/2020
In our time of social distancing, Obata's handwritten notes have us thinking about how we communicate with one another, and how important a simple note can be.
A selection of artifacts and ephemera from the Nam June Paik Archive
02/04/2020
The "Father of Video Art" takes center stage in a new installation and book.
Media - 2019.32.4 - SAAM-2019.32.4_1 - 138048
Discovering four watercolors by Yayoi Kusama in SAAM's Joseph Cornell Study Center