Spring in Woodstock, 1950
14 x 32 inches | oil on canvas
Born in Yokohama, Japan on April 10, 1910 Sueo Serisawa was the son of artist Yoichi Serisawa. After moving to Los Angeles in 1918, he became ingrained in the California art scene. Perfecting his craft as a draughtsman and painter, Serisawa studied at Otis Art Institute and the Art Institute of Chicago. Serisawa became an instructor himself, teaching at Kahn Art Institute, Scripps College, and the Laguna Beach School of Art. Upon the U.S. entry into the war, Serisawa as a Japanese immigrant, became fearful of forced internment on the West Coast. He and his family moved to New York City until 1947 when they were able to safely return to Los Angeles. Serisawa spent the rest of his life in California, teaching and painting.
AN ANALYSIS OF THE ARTIST'S WORK
Serisawa's early work was comprised of portraiture, landscapes, and still life paintings. But soon, many of his pieces began to reflect a critical political commentary of the ensuing World War. One of his most recognized pieces, Nine O’clock News, 1939 depicts a clock and a newspaper symbolizing the moment in history when it was announced that the invasion of Poland had begun.
Sueo Serisawa was a prolific and well regarded artist. In the late 1950s he began experimenting with alternative concepts of representational art and was soon represented by one of the West Coast's most renowned galleries, Dalzell Hatfield. Here, he exhibited alongside fellow West Coast Modernists Dan Lutz, Frances de Erdely, Richard Haines, and Dorr Bothwell. As he became more involved with Modernist school in Los Angeles, his paintings began to reflect the modernist aesthetics of abstraction and cubism. Implementing elements of fragmentation and abstracted geometric forms Serisawa and his colleagues rejected the decorum of previously held artistic traditions. Experimental elements like variations in spatial planes, form, and color flavored this period of Serisawa's work and for the first time in history the West Coast became a thriving art center in the realm of American art.
COLLECTIONS
LACMA, Los Angeles, CA
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York NY
Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.
San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
Pasadena Museum of Art, Pasadena, CA
Laguna Beach Museum of Art, Laguna Beach, CA
Mengei International Museum, San Diego, CA
EXHIBITIONS
1949 California State Fair (medal winner)
1948 California Palace of the Legion of Honor
1941 LACMA (solo)
1940 California State Fair (medal)
1939 Oakland Art Gallery
1947 Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art (medal)
Dayton Institute of Art
Dalzell Hatfield Gallery, Los Angeles
