JANM PERMANENT COLLECTION ADDS HENRY SUGIMOTO PAINTINGS

LOS ANGELES – The Japanese American National Museum (JANM) has added 240 oil paintings and more than 200 watercolors by artist Henry Sugimoto to its permanent collection, thanks to a donation by the artist’s daughter Madeleine. The donation also included diaries, woodblocks and woodblock prints, artist tools, and dress designs. These items join numerous other Sugimoto paintings and artifacts that had previously been gifted or loaned to the museum. JANM’s collection now encompasses over 700 works of art by Sugimoto, spanning his entire career. This is the largest collection of paintings in the JANM collection.

“The Japanese American National Museum is honored to be the permanent home for Henry Sugimoto’s collection,” said Dr. Greg Kimura, President and CEO of JANM. “The collection spans his entire career, from pre-War to his incarceration to the post-War era. Henry was a lauded artist before being unjustly locked up with 120,000 other Japanese Americans behind the barbed wire of an American concentration camp. That experience dramatically affected his work. Now JANM will be able to share his art and legacy for generations to come.”

“It is important to me that my father’s work be properly cared for and made accessible,” said Madeleine Sugimoto. “I could think of no better place than the Japanese American National Museum to steward the art and artifacts of his career and life.”

The first gift of Sugimoto’s work was made to JANM by Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa in 1992. It consisted primarily of 142 oil paintings. In 2000, Madeleine Sugimoto loaned the museum additional paintings, sketchbooks, woodblock prints, letters, and other items. That loan has now been converted to a donation. In 2001, JANM presented Henry Sugimoto: Painting an American Experience. It was the first museum retrospective of the artist’s work and featured over 100 paintings along with photographs, sketchbooks, and other archival materials related to Sugimoto’s life and career.

Prior to WWII, Sugimoto’s career was thriving. Influenced by French Post-Impressionists, he primarily painted landscapes and city scenes. Mexican muralists such as Jose Clemente Orozco and Diego Rivera were also among Sugimoto’s influences, as were European and Japanese artists he encountered during a two-year stay in Paris. But once he was incarcerated in the wake of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, both his style and subject matter were forever altered. During and following the war, Sugimoto depicted the indignities he and his fellow inmates suffered in a narrative and figurative style that was unique to the artist. Sugimoto died in 1990 at the age of 90.

The recently-acquired items are still in the process of being inventoried. Once that process is completed, qualified scholars will be able to request access to selected items by appointment.

NOW ON VIEW AT JANM:

Giant Robot Biennale 4
Through January 24, 2016
Giant Robot Biennale 4, produced in collaboration with Giant Robot founder Eric Nakamura, examines the evolution of the Giant Robot aesthetic from its humble origins in drawing to its many celebrated manifestations in painting, installation, muralism, and photography.

Common Ground: The Heart of Community
Ongoing
Incorporating hundreds of objects, documents, and photographs collected by JANM, this exhibition chronicles 130 years of Japanese American history, from the early days of the Issei pioneers through the World War II incarceration to the present.

About the Japanese American National Museum (JANM)

Established in 1985, the Japanese American National Museum promotes understanding and appreciation of America’s ethnic and cultural diversity by sharing the Japanese American experience. Located in the historic Little Tokyo district of downtown Los Angeles, JANM is a hybrid institution that straddles traditional museum categories and strives to provide a voice for Japanese Americans as well as a forum that enables all people to explore their own heritage and culture. Since opening to the public, JANM has presented over 70 exhibitions onsite and traveled 17 of its exhibitions to locations around the world, including the Smithsonian Institution and the Ellis Island Museum in the United States, and several leading cultural museums in Japan and South America.

JANM is located at 100 N. Central Ave., Los Angeles. Museum hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Thursday from noon to 8 p.m. General admission is $9 adults, $5 students and seniors, free for members and children under age five. Admission is free to everyone on Thursdays from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and every third Thursday of the month from noon to 8 p.m. General admission prices and free admission times may not apply to specially ticketed exhibitions. Closed Monday, 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. For more information visit janm.org or call 213.625.0414.