User:TeletubbiesSunBaby/sandbox

Hisako Hibi: (Draft Work for Group Project)
Post-War Years: I think we could elaborate on Hibi's life and career after the war, including her move to New York City, her transition into abstract art, and her experiences as a seamstress. I wonder if we can find out about any of the other challenges she faced as she evolved her art after this period of internment.

Artwork Analysis: I think we should consider even trying to add an entire section that analyzes some of her key artworks in more detail, discussing themes, techniques, and the emotions or messages conveyed in her art and how they represent the challenges she faced as well as overcame.

- What to Find: Artworks that relate to internment from her post-war years, artworks with George and Hisako

References (Explanation of Chosen Sources and Imbedded) Citations

 * 1) https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/725127

This article discusses the donation of multiple papers/documents/medias of Japanese American painters, Hisako and Matsusaburo "George" Hibi to the "Archives of American Art". The donations shed light on both of their lives and their careers and they were donated to the museum by their daughter. The donations include sketches, correspondence, and personal writings that reveal the artists' and their experiences before, during, and after World War II. The collection expands not only the archive but emphasizes the resilience of the Topaz Art School during a period marked with suspicion and racism.

2. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4229291

This article discusses a book titled "The View from Within: Japanese American Art from the Internment Camps 1942-1954 by Karen M. Higa. This text explores art that was created by the Japanese Americans who were forcibly interned in American concentration camps during WWII and this collection of artworks provides insight into the lives and experiences of these artists in internment. The book Captures the every day life of the internees, their experiences, and the emotional responses that were evoked from the whole event while shedding light on the resilience of these artists continuing to create despite their circumstances.

3. https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/24490

"In 1 943, Chiura Obata and his family were released from the Topaz Internment Camp after obtaining the five necessary letters of recommendation from outside American officials and political figures. When the Obata family left, Matsusaburo Hibi and his wife, Hisako, took over leadership of the Topaz Art School" (p 23).

"While equally eager to bridge the divide between artistic traditions of the East and West, the Hibis thought a better approach would be to construct a new visual language through art to accomplish this goal. Through their education in America, the Hi bis were exposed to current Western ideas about painting, and to older American ideas in the Western art history courses they took. Hisako Hibi was very interested in the American Impressionists. Although visually the Hibis adopt many American traditions relating to art, such as the use of large expanses of color and wide brush strokes, their subject matter is often involved with reconstructing Japanese traditions that were not able to take place in their camp situation. It is evident that while the Hibis were trying to find a new, more American style, it was still important to remember Japanese traditions that were a part of their identity." (24)

"For Hisako Hibi, her paintings also explore issues of the domestic role of women, and how that role adapted to the camp situation. Being a mother, wife, and woman was a difficult circumstance simply as a Japanese American woman in the United States. Japanese American women lacked the same resources and support networks American women had access too." (28)

"Similar to Chiura Oba ta, Hibi's painting is used as a form of social commentary. Painting was seen by the Hibis as a constructive way to speak, whereas complaints were seen as a waste of energy. Being productive was an important aspect of Japanese American culture in the camps, and idle time was generally not socially acceptable. Work gives people a defined role in the world, and allows one to feel they have an important contribution that impacts others"