Chiura Obata 1947 UC campus paintings portfolio

Heading: (Chiura Obata - Univ.of Calif. portfolio)
Author: Obata, Chiura
Title: "California's Colorful Campuses" Portfolio
Place Published: Berkeley
Publisher:
Date Published: 1947
Description:

Complete set of 20 plates, reproducing Obata's watercolor paintings of the University of California campuses, all mounted on 12 x 15 backing paper. Loose-leaf in a specially-designed cover, with one page of introductory text by W. F. Calkins and a large photograph of Obata, then Assistant Professor of Art at UC Berkeley

6 new drawings of campuses at La Jolla, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Riverside, Santa Barbara and Davis, plus the Berkeley cyclotron and Lick Observatory, were added to 12 plates taken from Obata's 1940 "Seasons at California" to make this new portfolio, with a "grizzly bear" cover replacing the earlier Campanile design.

Obata was already a well-known California artist and Berkeley Professor when he painted the scenes reproduced and collected in his 1940 portfolio. Following racist harassment and wartime internment as a Japanese-American, he and his wife returned, postwar, to reopen their Berkeley studio, while Obata continued to teach art classes. After his academic retirement in 1954, he devoted his time to painting and to conducting art tours of Japan. His original paintings and prints are now avidly collected.
Condition Report: Very good condition