ARTIST: Chuzo F Tamotsu (New York, New Mexico, Japanese, 1891 - 1975)
NAME: Three Women Drawing
YEAR: 1949
MEDIUM: watercolor on board
CONDITION: Very good. Minor age toning.
SIGHT SIZE: 15 x 11 1/2 inches / 38 x 30 cm
FRAME SIZE: unframed
SIGNATURE: lower left
CATEGORY: antique vintage painting
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SKU#: 119027
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BIOGRAPHY:
Chuzo Tamotzu was a self-taught painter who lived in New York City before settling in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1948.Tamotzu was born in Kagoshima, Japan in 1888. At Senshu University in Tokyo he was educated in political science. Self-taught in sumi-e, he left Japan in 1914 to further his study of art throughout Asia and Europe. Tamotzu moved to the U.S. in 1920 where befriended several other artists, such as Philip Evergood, Yasuo Kuniyoshi and John Sloan. Tamotzu served on the board of the Society of Independent Artists when Sloan became the society's president. During the Great Depression, Tamotzu worked for the Public Works of Art Project in New York, but was denied participation in the Works Progress Administration because he was not an American citizen.Tamotzu served in the American military during World War II as a combat sketch artist, and eventually became an American citizen. In 1947 Tamotzu became a founding member of the New York Artists' Equity Association.In 1974 Tamotzu converted the studio he had been renting in Sante Fe from John Sloan into his own gallery.Tamotzu's art is held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and New Mexico Museum of Art.Tamotzu moved to New York in 1920 to pursue his art career and resided there for twenty one years. He mastered the art techniques of Japanese Sumi ink, pastel chalk, oils, and tempura. Tamotzu continued his studies and began to gain reputation. He exhibited his work in Whitney Museum of American Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, The Art Institute of Chicago, the Society of Independent Artists, and The American Contemporary Artists' Gallery.In 1953, he organized an exchange art presentation between a gathering of New Mexico primary school kids and Hiroshima school children to promote altruism and a better understanding between these countries.From 1950 to 1959 The Museum of New Mexico held annual exhibitions of his art.As a member of Artists' Equity Association, he contributed into passing a legislation for the formation of the New Mexico Arts Commission.