Exhibit recalls wartime struggles

By Marcy Redmond

A new exhibit inside the de Saisset Museum brings the past to life and pays tribute to the strength of the human spirit.

Hisako Hibi, a first-generation Japanese-American, honed her artistic talents while imprisoned in a Japanese internment camp during World War II. Through her work Hibi documented the experiences of confinement and demeaning treatment that she and thousands of other Japanese-Americans faced during the war.

The name of the exhibit, "Peaceful Painter: Hisako Hibi," includes 26 paintings crafted by Hibi before, during and after her internment. Critics often describe her work as personal, yet universal, because much of Hibi's work portrays people and scenery from her time in the camps. De Saisset Museum Curator Karen Kienzle, feels Hibi's work is an essential contribution to understanding a dark period in history.

"As there were no cameras allowed in the camps, painting was an essential means of documenting the experiences of the residents," Kienzle said. "Hisako Hibi was shy and quiet and painting was a way for her to find a voice for herself."

Hibi gives the viewer a glimpse into the attempt those in the camps made at normalcy, and simultaneously adds subtle reminders of the injustices around them. In the painting "Western Sky," Hibi captures the beauty of the sunset above Topaz Internment Camp in Utah. Nevertheless, the viewer is not to forget that the oranges and reds above cannot be fully experienced by those captive in the camp. Hibi includes barracks in the painting's foreground to remind us of the sunset's inaccessibility to those in Topaz.

"I particularly appreciate the gentleness with which she reminds her viewers of her location," Andrea Pappas, professor of art history, said. "She shows great grace under the pressure of a truly difficult and oppressive situation."

Hibi was born in 1907 in Kyoto, Japan and moved to the United States with her parents at age 13. When her parents returned to Japan, Hibi remained to study art at the San Francisco Art Institute. There she met and married Matsusaburo George Hibi, another artist. Before their internment, the couple lived in Hayward with their daughter, Ibuki. Hibi depicted those years in her idealistic painting, "Apricot Trees Along Jackson Street."

In May, 1942, the family was evacuated to the Tanforan Assembly Center in San Bruno. Tanforan had been a racetrack, and prisoners were housed in makeshift residences that had previously been used to shelter animals.

Because of the location of the camp, near the artistic center of San Francisco, Tanforan had a great number of artists and art professors. They established an art school to teach residents about art and to cultivate the creativity that existed within Tanforan's fences. Hibi's work, "A Few Renovated Horse Stables," which she painted with materials from the school, depicts the conditions her family was forced to accept as home.

In another display of strength, the Tanforan residents worked the soil to grow flowers and vegetables to make life more bearable. In her memoirs, Hibi wrote that "traditionally, Japanese people love to improve and beautify their immediate surroundings, no matter where they are. By the end of the month, almost all the stall fronts were brightened with colorful blooming flowers." Hibi painted "Flowers" to document this remarkable phenomenon.

The Hibi family was soon transferred to Topaz Internment Camp. There Hibi continued to paint her impressions of everyday life in the camps while including subtle reminders of the setting. The massive skies and solitary figure of "Windy" show the intense weather conditions of the Utah desert as her daughter walks back from school through a windstorm.

"Hibi tells the story of the camps through the eyes of an artist, woman and mother," Kienzle said. "Her work highlights the transformative power of art."

The still life, "New Year's Mochi," gives the viewer a glimpse into the mind set of many Japanese-Americans during their interment. As part of the Japanese celebration of the New Year, mochi, a cake made of rice flour, is traditionally prepared. At Topaz, residents did not have the ingredients or facilities to make mochi. Hibi created it anyway, within her painting.

Throughout her work, Hibi kept her paintings surprisingly upbeat, considering the conditions under which she lived and worked in the camps. She paints children into compositions that would otherwise feel depressing and full of despair. Similar to the dark and distorted "Dinnertime," which shows children wearing bright colors playing in front of the gloomy and warped faces of the inmates eating in the camp mess hall.

Hibi often wrote poems on the back of her paintings to accompany her work, and managed to include positive elements in everything she created. In her memoirs, she wrote, "You have to go through winter to spring. You have to endure winter to have a spring."

Hibi's later work reflects her changing attitudes and surroundings after her discharge from Topaz Internment Camp in 1945. The family moved to New York City, where Hibi's husband died just two years after their release. The ethnic diversity, crowded and industrial atmosphere of New York profoundly affected Hibi, as is clear in her confusing and busy painting, "Frightful New York City."

Hibi's work continued to change with the growth of her family and the death of her husband, and dramatically shifted from the post-impressionist and American impressionist style of her earlier work to become increasingly abstract.

Her paintings "Waiting for a Bus to Work," "Autumn," "A Spring Garden" and "War and Suffering" express the pain she experienced during her incarceration as well as the strength of her spirit and eternal optimism. They include abstract pencil sketches, blurred figures and a few distinct images of praying hands and people covering their faces with their hands as if crying, giving the viewer insight into Hibi's attempt to cope with her difficult life.

Hibi continued to paint until her death in 1991. Since then her work has been extensively displayed in shows and museums on the West Coast.

"This retrospective is a wonderful opportunity to see the growth and development of an often overlooked artist," Pappas said.

The Hibi exhibit runs at de Saisset Musuem from Sept. 18 to Dec. 3, and Jan. 2 to March 11. A free slide lecture on the exhibit will be on Oct. 27 from 6 to 8 p.m. There is no admission fee. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

* Contact Marcy Redmond at (408) 554-4546 or mredmond@scu.edu.