Kenjiro Nomura, American Modernist: An Issei Artist’s Journey

Born in Japan, acclaimed Seattle artist Kenjiro Nomura (1896-1956) came to the United States as a child of ten, received artistic recognition by age twenty, and in the 1930s became the best-known artist of Japanese descent in the Northwest, his artwork widely exhibited regionally and nationally. Along with more than one hundred thousand Japanese Americans from the West Coast, Nomura was incarcerated during the war but continued to paint, leaving a visual record grounded in place and circumstance. In postwar years he developed a new abstract style that brought him recognition once again.

In Kenjiro Nomura, American Modernist, Barbara Johns presents Nomura’s life and artistic achievement within their historical context. Her account depicts Seattle as a stronghold of prewar Issei artistic activity, and Nomura’s work as providing a meaningful contribution to the history of American art. The book is generously illustrated with artwork tracing Nomura’s entire career. David F. Martin, curator of the Cascadia Art Museum, expands the context of Nomura’s accomplishment with an account of the artists with whom Nomura associated.