Having been a visiting artist at the percent white, 30 percent Oriental, wind as a gentle breeze. H11UX1iia11 art is University of Hawaii at Manoa for and 40 percent everything else, which polite and tasteful. It is seldom disturbi11g the past four months, somewhere I includes real Hawaiians-a miniscule or movi11g. It knuws its place. It does succumbed to a wily plea to look into percent or so of the whole! For an not raise serious questions. It seeks to the contemporary scene. I can already artist it implies no large, consistent affinn wlrat we know and to comfort our see that this is not the "Big Apple"• body of people to support or appre­ expectations. It is complacent. At their or Los Angeles. On the other hand, ciate any kind of art, but rather, many best, tire attitudes tlrat give rise to suclr what IS going on? Who knows? Right diversely rich cultural traditions art arc productive of a ki11d of restrained now, I'm curious. to compete with or draw from as clega11a, shibui, of a sort to be found inspiration. Studio space is almost most lriglrly-droeloped in an earlier Japan A Look at the Numbers nonexistent and, if available, over­ or France in the eightee11tlr century. Honolulu is a big small town priced. People work at home, in S11cl1 art can be pleasant and entertaining, of three-quarters of a million closets or outside. It's not a feverish, even delightful. It camrot be said to add residents-the entire population of militant place; more quiet, scattered, in any measure to our experie11ce or to the state is around a million and that serene and familial. acknowledge a world tom in agony. It A MAL IHI NI LOOKS AT HAWAII'S ART DYAD Mamoru Salo Honolulu International Airport

Walter Gabrielson A Problem of Judgement t•mbellislres but does not 1l1111nmate our It's difficult seeing Hawaii in rela­ realities. HllUJlii is a pretty place. Its arts tion to other art centers because of arc pretty tl1ings in pretty places. Tlrat its relative cultural youth, isolation a11y artists rise above tlris lLvel is worth and spectacular physicalness. So our spedal atte11tio11 . Some do so. Per/1aps what is it? When in doubt, go to the it is i11 tllcir work tlrat one may f111d a doesn't include tourists (300,000 a guru- in this case, a feisty University promise for a11 i11tenratio11alized art whiclr month who intensely circulate in of Hawaii studio teacher-artist­ w1JI grow deeper roots a11d thereby a more greater plastic Waikiki) or military historian- a self-styled subversive substa11tial tree, lo bend with tire wind (who hang out on Hotel Street in of the status quo who once wrote: wllile dl!OCloping a character and identity search for different art forms). The of tts ow11. 2 population of the state is about 30 If H11UX1iian art today could be characterized in a uxiy that would dif­ fere11tillte it from art in other places, it might be by 11oting tlrat Hmmiia11 artists and tlreir audie11ces te11d to perceive (the)

5 I took this comment around to She made forceful paintings: they happens to the commanding, strong several establishment people and blast, sway and swing. She felt personality that drops into a non­ found no substantial disagreement. herself lucky to have the Hawaiians referential art ambience and cuts Keep on looking. to express, and worked at it. Tennant, his own swath until later ideas who did few men-"I have not the come along. The Troika genius of a Michelangelo to make The art of contemporary Hawaii muscles aesthetic! But I prefer to talk to 3-0 in Public Places comes from three strong individuals men."4- appears on the horizon as a The State of Hawaii is benevolent who operated through the 1930s and feminist discovery not yet revealed to towards art. It has had one of the first to the close present: lsami Doi, the Mainland.5 She imperiously wrote one-percent laws in the nation-laws Madge Tennant and Jean Charlot. opinions on artists, art training and requiring that one percent of public They are all deceased now. Aside aesthetics. An intense, devoted group building funding, $1.2 million in 1979, from Tennant, few artists of Hawaii of followers now supports a private be set aside for purchasing works of have had artist-followers. The museum in Honolulu containing her art. Since its enactment in 1967, more importance of the three is that they major works. It's worth seeing. than 200 pieces have been commis­ set the tone for what is happening Jean Charlot, a Frenchman, has sioned and set in place. now to a great degree, made art a large following that is growing Many large, "big bucks" pieces legitimate in a backward place, still larger after his recent passing. were initially done by big-time out­ and created the acceptance and Charlot worked in Mexico and is siders, which created some local institutions that surround art. subsequently out of the Mexican resentment. These works give a Isami Doi is Hawaii's most humanist tradition. He came to contemporary look to Honolulu for well-known 11isc1l artist, trained Hawaii in the Forties and moved the quickie observer. Ironically, many locally and in New York. His early his sensitivities for the peasants to of these works appear to suffer a work was representational; he later the disappearing Hawaiian race. consistent problem of conflict with turned to abstraction. He was brought An indefatigable worker, he was their location in terms of size, color to prominence by the generation of a painter, made prints, did large and siting. It's a matter of nature Japanese rising to political, economic murals, and trained other artists in versus art, with the former winning and social power in the Sixties­ the fresco technique. Charlot taught hands down. It's hard to figure. making his works difficult to obtain at the university and oversaw its How did these people let the place now. The State Foundation on development in art, wrote books do them in? Among grander assump· Culture and the Arts, formed in the and plays, was an outstanding art tions: Alexander Liberman, on the late 1960s, did a great deal to promote historian, sold well and did com­ university campus, whose red tubes the careers of Japanese artists at its missions. What can you say? Charlot become very, very red; Tony Smith's outset. Besides Doi, this group in­ is now considered a contemporary "Fourth Sign" which becomes a black cluded Bumpei Akaji, Satoru Abe and giant and his works are collected geometric snake attempting an attack Tadashi Sato. internationally. His work became on the Art building-also on the Madge Tennant is the surprise. curiously more frozen into formalist university campus; lsamu Noguchi's She stopped off in the Islands in 1923 ideology as he went along. Now it's "Sky Gate" on the grounds of the and was persuaded to stay on for a hard to see what all the shouting municipal building; Marisol Escobar's while to paint the native Hawaiian. was about. He is reminiscent of many "Father Damien" standing solidly on It became an obsession. Coming Thirties Ashcan artists who attempted the steps of the State Capitol; Barbara from a solid grounding in European to idealize t/Jcir concept of class Hepworth's hvo massive bronze academic art, Tennant soon found her inequalities and suffering in heroic, sculptures at the Main State library; mettle in large Renoir/Dubuffet-like unassailable poses. Now they just Arnaldo Pomodoro's trio of metal impasto renditions of Hawaiian look silly. Charlot's natives are women in their gigantic, serene blocky, frozen stoic fantasies that majesty-with a startling formalist more deny than exalt humanness, painter/content bit of evolution that despite whatever daily chore is competitive with Gauguin's work. they are allegedly up to. His real accomplishments as a functioning artist in isolation should not be questioned. Charlot is more fascinating as an example of what

6 columns at the Financial Plaza in not aggravate, the society it comes deep, rough waters on the northern downtown Honolulu, and George from. I have been told horror stories coast of Oahu. He had come to the Rickey's piece that is defeated of how responsive the department Islands, was enchanted by them, and instantly and overwhelmingly by is to "this" and "that" conservative is now building a foundry-atelier. He the architectural abomination of influence, and that the graduate had that powered-up confidence of the Prince Kuhio Federal Building. student is fearful of innovation at the someone who's seen and survived the The Honolulu Academy of Arts, also, cost of being branded a "revisionist." big time and wants now to draw back has a few pieces. Funding, now, is Whatever the problems, it is not the and get to work in earnest. He's growing more towards the local artist local thing to protest, scream and doing it. He's developing the territory and will reflect his energy from now shout, raise hell, or whatever. much like a frontiersman-bringing on. Outdoor sculpture in Hawaii is in Management and faculty enjoy ideas and crafts out to the west and direct competition with the Hawaiian an elegant distance from reality­ settling the frontier. environment where practically every perhaps the result of the Islands' Don is a surfer, builder and artist. day is better than the one before. relative isolation and student respect He found Hawaii irresistible as source It makes for a hard problem and which elevates authority figures. On material and a clean place to live. difficult solution. the whole, students are fearful of He has created a following among asking questions or becoming visible younger sculptors who learn the art Big Influence: in class; they remain clannish by of metal fabrication at his side. They UHM Art Department still living at home and remaining in follow the development of large The University of Hawaii at cliques developed in high school. pieces all the way to the site. They Manoa's art department is unique They will adamantly follow any represent the younger, looking­ in its isolation from other schools. direction the teacher lays on them. for-a-challenge, undeveloped stage It doesn't worry much about what This behavior, though, is illusory that Hawaii aptly represents. is going on anywhere else, and is since the student will move on to the Many artists come and go. Few adamantly defensive about its virtue next class and blithely do the same make it past the high cost of living, along with being forwardly hostile thing there, resulting in a great "chop the loneliness, and the uphill fight towards the outside world. It is suey"6 of non-definition acceptance that art has had here. They see this housed in an incredible plant; a by the student. as an immense, limitless opportunity fourteen-million-dollar elephant At the present time, the school to develop, and they are in on its jostled past the system by an enig­ is in its settling-down phase- happenings. I feel a touch of envy. matic art historian/contemporary art the faculty is growing older and lover named Prithwish Neogy, a permanent positions are being filled Contemporary droll Indian aesthete who draws the up. lt has dominated the Islands' Three-Dimensional Artists lean-eyed, hungry students to his contemporary art movement by Satoru Abe-old master, welded seminars from the studio classes. simply being in existence and metal abstractions of natural forms, It's very tempting to talk about the providing the art teachers for many public commissions; Mamoru details of the department which, the state. The school attempts to Sato-organic forms, mechanized upon reflection, are simply not that interrelate with the public through shapes, light works; Helen Gilbert­ interesting-with a few exceptions: exhibitions, outside lectures, work­ light boxes using geometric shapt.>s; (1) the instruction is very systematic, shops and the rest. ln a few years it Don Page-stainless and metal basic and pedagogical; almost all the will have to face Mainland U.S. art sculpture, monumental abstract forms way to MFA-hood; (2) it could be realities: decreasing budgets and reflecting early Hawaiian motifs and adequately described as an homage falling enrollments. What will happen surf shapes; John Barnett-small, to representational. figurative, is anyone's guess. lt could become intimate cast abstract forms; Suzanne still-life training, and (3) it is almost just another stuffy place in academia Wolfe-droll ceramic fantasies. classic 1960 definition of art school reflecting on what it thinks it can't do, expansion-from whatever con­ or use the newer age of limitations to Fonnalist Artists ceptual distinctions it intensely focus upon a more serious, intense art Tadashi Sato-abstractions done believed in to a large factory which peculiar to the island experience. in feathery brush strokes, very essentially is programmed to reflect, successful painter; Ken Bushnell­ A Conversation smooth post-Stella pastel airbrush Don. I first made his acquaintance abstract, shaped paintings; Lee underwater while following a set of Chesney-Mainland expatriate, bright swimming trunks into the

7 post-abstract expressionist prints many. The Contemporary Arts Center was simply the only art experience in and paintings, powerful teacher; is the most active game in Honolulu. the Islands (aside from the Bernice John Wisnosky-diaphanous, large Located smack in the center of Pauahi Bishop Museum, which is sprayed paintings and watercolor publisher Thurston Twigg-Smith's devoted to Hawaiian history). It landscapes; John Kjargaard-solid Honolulu Advertiser, in the Hawaii was more energetic then than it is New York generation abstract painter News Agency building, it represents now about featuring current works. of long standing in the Islands; his solid commitment and backing of The Contemporary Arts Center has Minnie Fujita-abstractions and the arts. In the past ten years there taken on most of this now so that the work reminiscent of Feininger; have been about 200 shows and 300 Academy suffices to have one annual Mary Bonic-large, cotor-density­ works purchased. It is presently over­ juried show for art contenders-with impassioned abstract paintings; seen by the flinty, energetic Laila established Hawaii artists staying Lois Ryan-traditional abstract Roster. Roster is instrumental in pick­ out of it!-and small invitationals. expressionist concerns; Donna ing the shows and overseeing t!1eir You sense that they are relieved at Stoner-organic shapes in large development and installation. The being out of the trenches. On a quiet, paintings; Charles Higa-abstract Center proposes to include the con­ intelligent level the Academy has watercolor; Ben Norris-painter, struction of a permanent space for a focused upon defining art as a moved to New York; Barbara Engle Hawaii contemporary art collection­ long-term issue. and Winifred Hudson-abstract, if funds can be raised. It is also possible to show at the formalist concerns. The Honolulu Academy of Amfac building, a space in downtown Arts- actually a museum- is a little Honolulu that accommodates shows Curious Takes jewel among the high-rises of central of larger groups (print organizations, August Becker-newcomer to the Honolulu. Built in 1926, it's a low-key, crafts, Association of Honolulu scene, recent large show at the meditative experience with intimate Artists, etc.), and at the two com­ Contemporary Arts Center, does courtyards, birds, trees, and fountains mercial galleries-Gima's, a small 1950s figurative painting somewhat between the galleries. The galleries space in a large shopping center (Ala relative to Bacon; John Thomas­ are laid out in a manner which Moana Center), and the Downtown intense optical color regionalist presents a quiet form of nature as a Gallery. There is one small gallery fantasies; Marcia Morse-careful, complement to the art. Up against on Maui, and a strange thing on the elegant prints, paper works, writes the pluralism of today's art, the Big lsland7 at the Kilauea Volcano criticism, paintings; Allyn· Bromley­ Academy has opted for what it can do Visitor's Center that features many humorous prints, plexi-drawings, best, which, so far, is making contact diverse works of the local hippie mixed media, has a following; Fred with the art experience as a whole community (so that's where they all Roster-wacko, absurd, ironic three­ through its excellent collection of went; middle-aged flower children dimensional pieces, displaces human­ Eastern artifacts and paintings abound in Paia, Maui, too). Among ism; Mary Mitsuda-material/process and a European collection that is the artists at Kilauea is a fascinating hangings, packaging and wrapping, supplanted with some post-abstract self-taught printmaker named narrative word pieces. expressionist paintings by Morris Dietrich Varez who does scenes of Louis, Frankenthaler, Rauschenberg, Old Hawaii that upstage the Charlot More To The Hip Sam Francis, Dine, et. al. Traffic myth. Varez does unlimited editions Roy Venters-mixed media en­ is around 200 visitors daily-mostly of his prints for very low prices and vironments, trash recycler and island people. There is energetic va­ can't make them fast enough now. memorabilia behind glass; Michael riety in the evening: a tea ceremony, One large space in Honolulu still Dove-xerox pieces; Malcolm Wong­ rare Japanese films, Garbo retro, to be defined is the gallery of the conceptualist on the move; Laila musicales, lectures, experimental art department on the University Roster-conceptuals, narrative, xerox, films from New York, print work­ of Hawaii at Manoa campus, run moves around; Arthur Nelander­ shops, Saturday art classes, and all by Tom Klobe. Klobe, who studied conceptual, sexual innuendos, gives that. For a long time, the Academy at Fullerton, is taking flak from the most outrageous parties on academia-which can never agree on the island. anything- concerning what "gallery policy" should be. The gallery opened The Dilemma: in 1976 and has had shows of Mel Where To Show? Bochner, Noguchi, Louis Lunetta, the One stifling situation in need of relief is the paucity of walls and space to operate within. There just aren't

8 German expressionist Pranas Dom being quietly put to me. Or, is it an all issues. I see Hawaii as either a Saitis, and Chinese murals, among excuse? I think it is one of the cen­ potential or a trap, depending on many. It is an excellent space. tral issues of being an artist here which day of the week J think about in Hawaii. Does removal from the it. The inspiration you can get from Conversation with "L'' careerist and other-definition places confronting nature is sheer voltage. Hawaii seems to both attract and in the mainstream to the quieter, I think it is healthier in doses to repel. "L" received his undergraduate self-realization of outposts like be away from the stridency of art training at the University of Hawaii make you and your art mainstream cacophony. Hawaii seems Hawaii, went to the Mainland, taught stronger, weaker, something else, to be a place in which a·rt can develop, at UCLA, was part of the Sixties in or just redundant? and perhaps it shall. There are the Los Angeles, moved back to Hawaii, people, a growing public in this in­ and has taught here for the past five Sense and Nonsense to sane activity; slowly expanding space; years. He has had successful shows Fling Out The Door of a and artists' organizations pushing at the Center and the Downtown 747 as I Shove Off the politicians for support-it's Gallery, his works are being collected, Right now I am over two thousand all here right now and it may soon and he is well-respected on all fronts. miles from other alternatives if things reach that critical mass and formulate. Now he has to leave again. He says get bad. If it got bad here, I would The big issue might well be to reverse that what you want from the place have to suffer or die, and that would the energy polarity of the island can be satisfied, but then what? be it. Recently, I had a non-definition experience which oozes your intensity You create more questions which anxiety attack, wherein I needed out of you, to turn it around so that are harder to answer when you're some unflattering response to some this astonishing blast of raw nature up against them. You can stay on, works to get some solid feedback would come back at you and cause become more successful, get com­ on what I was doing. I found that I you to create! missions, talk to the same people, missed the four or five people back and not continue to grow. "L" also home on whom I could lay my stuff Footnotes fears what he calls "becoming a and go at intensely, elliptically, missionary"-confronting that strategically, whatever. Is it a weak­ 1A slang tenn used to refer to New York uncontrollable energy of nature and ness to want this? Many island artists City. seeing it as something to be whipped realize that they must actively save for 1From ArtiJts of Hawaii, vol. 2, p. ix., into shape. This moves you toward trips to the Mainland to reestablish Murray Turnbull, ed. Honolulu: State tight little systems and dogmatic their roots, to confront the harder Foundation on Culture and the Arts and the University Press of Hawaii, answers so that you don't admit aspects of the quality issue, to 1977. Photographs and interviews by to what the place is doing to you. experience other ideas, and to be Francis Haar. It makes you ignore its sensuality regenerated. I can understand it. lJapanesc language tenn referring to upon you; to not give yourself the One perception I have enjoyed by Individuals of the second immigrant experience, which might well be being away is that in Los Angeles generation. giving up art, and just lay on the there is too much going on. It is all •from "Paintings From Remembered beach. This is the dilemma that for a very small, select group of Sources: Two Exhibitions From Sixty Paradise poses. Simply, what do you people who are talking to each other­ Years," Honolulu, vol. xi., no. 4, p. 43, do when practically all your sensual to the exclusion of everything and Jeri Bostwick, ed. October 1976. 5 needs are satisfied by walking out everyone else. It's a bizarre and irra­ Thc continental United States. &)n this context, "chop sucy" refers to a into your back yard? tional game that appears hilarious out melange, a confusion. here in the Islands. On the other hand, Tfhe island of Hawaii. Guru #2 I have to watch out for the benign I sympathize with "L" and influence here of a lot of bright, lazy understand the problem. Guru #2 people sort of whacking away at their says, however, that Hawaii lets you stuff under the delusion that they Walter Gabrielson is Assistant Professor, get into your "self"-wherc it's are "doing their thing." The reality Cal1for111a Stale U11iucrsity nt Norlliridge. He all at anyway. He says that a person is more towards a drift to prettiness; received /1is MFA from tire Otis Art Institute should meditate and become one with a disengagement from the tougher irr Los Angeles. nature. Sure, become one with a art experience, or the raising of forest fire, too. I see the point. I feel whatever game they have going into the sensations. J hear the arguments an organized religion. The greater art, like the greater person, takes time and a lot of consideration of

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