Sueo Serisawa Abstract Oil Painting, circa 1953

Item Details

Sueo Serisawa (Japanese-American, 1910 – 2004)
Untitled (abstract composition), circa 1953
Oil painting on board
Signed to the lower left

Born in Yokohama, Japan in 1910, Sueo Serisawa’s artistic style evolved considerably throughout his career but working mostly in oil, watercolor, and lithographs. His first artistic and pedagogical influence was his father, Yoichi Serisawa, whose style was very representational. After moving to Seattle with his family in 1918, Serisawa’s style became influenced by European masters such as Renoir, Monet, Rembrandt, and El Greco and American Realists such as Thomas Eakins. During this period, his subject matter focused on still lifes, landscapes, and portraits. With the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the onset of World War II, it was no longer safe for Serisawa and his family to remain in California, so he moved to Chicago where he studied at the Chicago Art Institute for one year. Serisawa also studied at Otis Art Institute, Scripps College, and Kahn Art Institute, also teaching at the latter two during the early 1950s. In 1943, Serisawa moved again to New York, where his style shifted to bold abstract and modern works being exposed to the Abstract Expressionist movement at the time. By 1947 Serisawa and his family returned to California, where his oeuvre evolved to marry both his Western representative styles and Eastern abstract, philosophical, and spiritual influences. Serisawa was an artistic tour de force during the mid-20th century and some of his works remain in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Smithsonian Institute.

• Item not examined outside of mounting

Condition

- negligible abrasions to the edges and surface of the frame; minor scratches and paint chipping throughout the composition.

Dimensions

- measures the frame; visible image measures 20.25" W x 27" H.

Item #

ITMG822743