At the Dawn of a New Age: Early Twentieth-Century American Modernism

May 7, 2022–Feb 26, 2023

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Born 1885 in Okayama, Japan
Died 1975 in Berkeley, CA

In the summer of 1927 the influential San Francisco–based artist and teacher Chiura Obata spent six weeks hiking and camping in Yosemite and the High Sierra. Emotionally affected by the landscape’s grandeur and what he perceived as its manifestation of rhythm and harmony, Obata made roughly one hundred sketches in watercolor and Japanese sumi ink. A year later, on a return visit to Japan, he used the watercolors to create a portfolio of thirty-five woodblock prints, of which this work is an example. Over eighteen months, and with the aid of thirty-two wood carvers and eighteen printers, Obata created prints that faithfully reproduced the saturated color, three-dimensional space, and individual brushstrokes of his watercolors. Their synthesis of Eastern and Western traditions radiate the reverence Obata felt for what he called America’s “Great Nature.”

A print of a snowy peak and lake basin below.

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At the Dawn of a New Age: Early Twentieth-Century American Modernism

Chiura Obata

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Silence, Last Twilight on an Unknown Lake, Johnson Peak, 1930

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At the Dawn of a New Age: Early Twentieth-Century American Modernism

Chiura Obata

14

Silence, Last Twilight on an Unknown Lake, Johnson Peak, 1930

Artists

Explore works from this exhibition in the Whitney's collection

Explore works from this exhibition
in the Whitney's collection