Many Japanese people were immigrants in the U.S. before the World War II. Some of them started to study art and have displayed their works in the U.S. Recently, some essays have been written about thee artists. We know some Japanese artists have held exhibiting in New York City between the 1910s - 1920s. The purpose of this essay is to show how we can learn about the exhibitions of Japanese Artists in the later 1930s in the New York City from newspaper and exhibition catalogues.
We have to see some art project that supported artists during in the Depression. The Municipal Art Committee of New York was established in 1934 with the intention of giving an opportunity to display some works of artists who resided New York City. However, The Municipal Art Committee had a clause that artists must have a U.S. citizenship requirement. Unfortunately, Japanese people could not get a citizenship at this time. It was an example of discrimination based on race. Yasuo Kuniyoshi who was
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Surrealistic painting by Sakari Suzuki called "OF Her Past" even won the first competitive exhibition in the American Contemporary Art gallery by the American Artists Congress in 1936. This news caused a great sensation. Suzuki's winning at the competition was one example of Japanese artist success in the American art world.
In 1935, the Works of Progress Administration was started to give unemployed artists a chance to work on public projects. Some Japanese Artists worked under the project as American citizens. However, in July 1937, Asian artists who could not get an American citizenship were dismissed from W.P.A.
Chinese and Japanese Artists who were dismissed from W.P.A held an exhibition at the A.C.A. gallery in September 1937.
Moreover, Japanese Artists held an exhibition in the Municipal Arts Gallery of New York in 1938. Most of their works displayed a western style that was called the American Scene without Asian