In this talk, David F. Martin will discuss the art of Japanese-American painters active in Seattle, Washington in the early to mid- 20th century.

Beginning with the first generation Issei to the next generation of Nisei, several of these artists achieved national and international reputations during their lives. However, their careers and personal lives suffered from being interned in incarceration camps on the American west coast during WWII.

Martin will feature a wide range of styles practised by these artists from impressionism to modernism and abstraction. He will present rare images of paintings completed by some of the artists during their incarceration.

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About the contributors

David F. Martin

David F. Martin is an American curator and writer specializing in the art history of Seattle and the Pacific Northwest associated with Cascadia Art Museum in Edmonds, Washington, USA. For over thirty years, his career has focused on women, Japanese and Chinese Americans, gay & lesbian and other American minorities who had established national and international reputations during the period 1890-1960. He is the author and co-author of numerous books and articles including the groundbreaking Shadows of a Fleeting World, Pictorialism and the Seattle Camera Club; Invocation of Beauty: The Life and Photography of Soichi Sunami and his most recent publication, Full Light & Perfect Shadow: The Photography of Chao Chen Yang.

He contributes essays and catalogue entries for national and international publications on painting, printmaking and photography. Martin received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Cornish College of the Arts in 2017 and was the 2023 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pacific Northwest Historians Guild.