Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo
Miki Hayakawa, One Afternoon, ca. 1935, oil on canvas, 40 x 40 in., New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, Gift of Preston McCrossen in memory of his wife, the artist, 1954, 520.23P
Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo presents an in-depth look at the careers of three trailblazing American women of Japanese descent and asserts their rightful place in American art.
Description
Miki Hayakawa (1899-1953), Hisako Hibi (1907-1991), and Miné Okubo (1912-2001) were three of the most active and visible female American artists of Japanese descent in the years leading up to World War II. Their acclaimed careers spanned eight decades and four U.S. states, yet the full extent of their contributions remain underrecognized within twentieth-century American art history.
Pictures of Belonging is an unprecedented examination of these three trailblazing figures. By tracing their artistic development before, during, and after the mass incarceration and displacement of Japanese Americans during World War II, the exhibition offers a nuanced view of how these women continued to explore and experiment with new artistic expression throughout their lives. Created during tumultuous decades in modern U.S. history, their paintings, along with their stories of resilience, remind us of art’s power in the face of adversity and challenge.
The exhibition includes works by Hisako Hibi and Miné Okubo recently acquired for SAAM’s collection, part of a multi-year initiative to expand and enrich the representation of Asian American experiences, perspectives, and artistic accomplishment in public displays and new scholarship.
Pictures of Belonging is curated by ShiPu Wang, Coats Family Chair in the Arts, and professor at the University of California, Merced, and organized by the Japanese American National Museum. The exhibition is coordinated at the SAAM by Melissa Ho, curator of twentieth-century art, with Anna Lee, curatorial assistant for Asian American art.
Visiting Information
Credit
Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo is organized by the Japanese American National Museum. This exhibition is made possible through support from the Terra Foundation for American Art and, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Generous support for the presentation at the Smithsonian American Art Museum has been provided by Debra Wong Yang and John Spiegel, the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, and the Henri and Tomoye Takahashi Charitable Foundation.
Richard Sakai and the Japan-United States Friendship Commission provided additional funding. This exhibition received federal support from the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative pool, administered by the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum.
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