Join JANM’s Collections Management and Access unit for a viewing of oil paintings by Issei artist Hisako Hibi (1907–91).

Hibi was a painter and printmaker throughout her life, exhibiting widely and achieving particular renown in the Bay Area, where she first moved with her family from Japan in 1920, and where she eventually retired and passed away.

In 1942, Hibi and her husband George, also an artist, were forced to donate their artwork to various institutions as they prepared for World War II incarceration with their two young children. The couple continued to pursue their art while incarcerated at Topaz; Hibi created more than 70 oil paintings during this time, ranging from landscapes to still lifes, while she and her husband both taught at the Topaz Art School founded by Chiura Obata. Influenced by late 19th-century European and American painters, particularly Mary Cassatt, Hibi captured many domestic scenes in her paintings, which stand today as a unique record of camp life.

RSVPs recommended to memberevents@janm.org or 213.830.5646.

View paintings from the Hisako Hibi Collection online.

Image: Hisako Hibi, A Young Mother, 1944, oil on canvas. Gift of Ibuki Hibi Lee (96.601.31).