Chiura Obata: Ink Portrait of a Handsome Young Man

Portrait of a handsome young man, his features strong, with a square jaw and thick, wavy hair.  Obata has used a fine brush and drawn both the contours of the face and the details of the features with unerring precision. Obata’s estate contains numerous  demonstration paintings that Obata made for teaching his classes at Berkeley; those are generally on a larger paper and are done with a thicker brush; perhaps so that those at the back of the class could see clearly what Obata was demonstrating. Works like this one that are on smaller paper contain sketches that seem more personal and extemporaneous; it seems that Obata was drawing, painting and sketching for himself every day of his life, both for pleasure and to keep his skills sharp. This portrait may be of a man who worked at Berkeley in some capacity, and Obata found his features interesting enough to immortalize. 

Obata’s economy of line and mastery of the brush are practically unequalled in 20th c. American art. He influenced a generation of California artists, and at his own count taught more than 10,000 students. The University of California, Berkeley preserved all of his paintings and sketches while Obata and his family were interned in Utah during WWII. There is an exhibition of Obata’s work that ran for the first half of 2024 at SFMOMA.

Provenance: Estate of Chiura Obata. With a certificate of authenticity from the estate of the artist.