Ron Miyashiro

Ron Miyashiro (born 1938) is an important Japanese American painter, jewelry maker and assemblage artist. Miyashiro, who was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, first came to prominence in 1961 while still a student at Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, when he appeared on the controversial poster for "War Babies," an influential exhibition[1] at Henry Hopkins' Huysman Gallery in Los Angeles, along with his friends and contemporaries Larry Bell, Ed Bereal, and Joe Goode. Miyashiro later moved from Los Angeles to New York City where he continues to make work in multiple media. His early work has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years, and has been included in a number of high-profile museum exhibitions devoted to art from the 1960s.

Education

Miyashiro moved to Los Angeles, California in 1957, at the age of 19 to attend Chouinard, at the instigation of a cousin. Without a portfolio or any prior training in visual art,[2] Miyashiro was forced to take private lessons in order to create a portfolio so that he could get in to Chouinard's program. While there, he studied painting with Robert Irwin, who introduced Miyashiro to the use of inexpensive house paints and strategies of assemblage. Irwin's influence[3] led directly to Miyashiro's major works of the early 1960s, wall-mounted small-scale assemblages consisting of found objects and dark, thick paint.[4] Richards Ruben, who was a major exponent of abstract expressionism in southern California, was also teaching at the time at Chouinard and was another important influence.[5] The postwar period at Chouinard was a high point for the institution, which became a seedbed for abstract expressionist practice in California, a key context for Miyashiro's work in the early 1960s.

"War Babies"

In 1961, Miyashiro was one of four artists who appeared in "War Babies," an exhibition curated by Henry Hopkins at the Huysman Gallery in Los Angeles.[6] The exhibition's poster, which featured Miyashiro, Bell, Goode and Bereal eating foods stereotypically associated with their respective ethnicities, attracted controversy and criticism from sources as diverse as the John Birch Society on the right (for the poster's alleged desecration of the American flag) and from voices on the left decrying its use of stereotypes.[7] Miyashiro's work at the time consisted of paintings and elegant, small-scale charcoal drawings that were, according to Henry Hopkins, "very black and very dark drawings of vaginal shapes, very rich oily, charcoal things. There would be a kind of slit in the middle."[8]

Miyashiro later moved to New York where, facing financial difficulties, he returned to jewelry making as a way of making ends meet, while continuing to work as an artist in other mediums.[9]

Exhibitions

Miyashiro's work has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years, and has been included in several high-profile group exhibitions devoted to art in Los Angeles in the 1960s. In 1988, he was featured in Lost and Found in California : Four Decades of Assemblage Art, published in conjunction with a series of exhibitions organized by James Corcoran Gallery in Santa Monica.[10]

In 2010, Miyashiro participated in "circa 1962," a two-person show at Cardwell Jimmerson gallery in Culver City in 2010, alongside the work of Jim Eller.[11]

In 2011, Miyashiro's work was included in the group exhibition "Now Dig This! Art in Black Los Angeles 1960-1980" at UCLA's Hammer Museum[12] alongside works by Noah Purifoy, John Outterbridge, Melvin Edwards, Betye Saar, Charles White as well as other non-African American artists including Mark di Suvero, Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, Gordon Wagner and others.[13]

Notes

  1. ↑ anonymous. "Joe Goode, Larry Bell, Ron Miyashiro, and Jerry McMillan speak about the exhibition War Babies, 2010–11". The Getty Center. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  2. ↑ Miyashiro, Ron. "Video: Ron Miyashiro speaks about his work, June 2010". The Getty Center. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  3. ↑ Frank, Peter. "The Ghost in the Pacific Time Machine: Chouinard Art Institute and the History of Art in Los Angeles". Bluecanvas. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  4. ↑ anonymous. "circa 1962". Cardwell Jimmerson. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  5. ↑ Chamberlin, Wesley. "Oral history interview with Henry Tyler Hopkins, 1980 Oct. 24-Dec. 17". Archives of American Art. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  6. ↑ anonymous. "Poster for the exhibition 'War Babies' at Huysman Gallery in Los Angeles". The Getty Center. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  7. ↑ Hertz`, Richard (2011). The Beat and the Buzz: Inside the L.A. Art World. Hol Art Books. p. 126. ISBN 9781936102204.
  8. ↑ Chamberlin, Wesley. "Oral history interview with Henry Tyler Hopkins, 1980 Oct. 24-Dec. 17". Archives of American Art. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  9. ↑ anonymous. "Ron Miyashiro Interview (Part 1)". Chouinard Foundation. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  10. ↑ anonymous. "Lost and Found in California : Four Decades of Assemblage Art". Specific Object. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  11. ↑ anonymous. "circa 1962: a selection of period artworks by Jim Eller and Ron Miyashiro". Cardwell Jimmerson. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  12. ↑ anonymous. "Now Dig This! Art in Black Los Angeles 1960-1980". UCLA Hammer Museum. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  13. ↑ Knight, Christopher. "Art review: 'Now Dig This!' at the UCLA Hammer Museum". LA Times. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
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