Book Description from Back Cover
When Chiura Obata, a gifted California artist born in Japan, made is first visit to Yosemite in 1927, the experience deeply affected his life and art. Not only did he produce a remarkable collection of sketches and paintings (later to become color woodblock prints), but he recorded the details of the trip in a fascinating series of letters and postcards.
This volume pesents Obata's Yosemite journey in his own words and art. Included are 85 full-color reproductions of sumi ink paintings, watercolors, and woodblock prints, plus an entertaining narrative of the six-week Yosemite visit as told through Obata's letters and cards to his family.
It is a unique form of book, allowing an intimate look at a talented artist's creative experience and showing the results of his genius - the spectacular Yosemite landscape paintings, the charming botanical studies, and the innovative and stunning woodblock prints that resulted from the trip.
Adding to the volume are essays by Janice T. Driesbach, curator at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, and Susan Landauer, an art historian trained at Yale University. Their contributions touch on Obata's background, his technique, and the significance of his work and the High Sierra trip.
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Background on Janice T. Driesbach and Susan Landauer from the Back Cover Flap
JANICE T. DRIESBACH has been curator of art at the Crocker Art Museum since 1985. A graduate of Allegheny College, she received her M.A. degree in art history from the University of Iowa. She served as assistant curator for prints, photographs, and modern art at the Indiana Art Museum and as an exhibition coordinator for the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and at The Oakland Museum. Among her publications are German and Austrian Expressionism, 1900-1920 (1977); Bountiful Harvest: 19th-Century California Still Life Painting (1991); and "Landmarks of Early California Painting" (California History [Spring 1993]).
SUSAN LANDAUER is an independent curator and writer specializing in California art. She holds a Ph.D. in art history from Yale University. Her publications include Edward Corbett: A Retrospective (1990); an essay in Clyfford Still: The Buffalo and San Francisco Collections (1992); and Paper Trails: San Francisco Abstract Expressionist Prints, Drawings, and Watercolors (1993); as well as numerous articles.
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