Virtual Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo Curator Talk

Learn more about three trailblazing Japanese American artists who, until now, have been excluded from the story of modernism in the United States and the exhibition that presents their artworks and life stories in dialogue. In this virtual talk, ShiPu Wang, Coats Family Chair in the Arts and professor of art history at the University of California, Merced, offers biographical sketches of the artists that contextualize their artistic development in relation to key moments in U.S. history and shares stories from his twenty-year journey to restore the important role of Hayakawa, Hibi, and Okubo in American art. 

Image credit: Miné Okubo, Wind and Dust, 1943, opaque watercolor on paperboard, 23 1⁄8 × 29 1⁄8 × 1 1⁄2 in. (58.7 × 74.0 × 3.8 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2023.46.3, © 2023, The Miné Okubo Charitable Corporation