Chiura Obata
1885–1975

Introduction

Chiura Obata (小圃 千浦, Obata Chiura, November 18, 1885 – October 6, 1975) was a well-known Japanese-American artist and popular art teacher. A self-described "roughneck", Obata went to the United States in 1903, at age 17. After initially working as an illustrator and commercial decorator, he had a successful career as a painter, following a 1927 summer spent in the Sierra Nevada, and was a faculty member in the Art Department at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1932 to 1954, interrupted by World War II, when he spent a year in an internment camp. He nevertheless emerged as a leading figure in the Northern California art scene and as an influential educator, teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, for nearly twenty years and acting as founding director of the art school at the Topaz internment camp. After his retirement, he continued to paint and to lead group tours to Japan to see gardens and art.

Wikidata identifier

Q5102560

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Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Accessed October 26, 2024.

Country of birth

Japan

Roles

Artist, illustrator, painter

ULAN identifier

500294074

Names

Chiura Obata, Obata Chiura

View the full Getty record

Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed October 26, 2024.



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