John Matsudaira - Artist Info

About John Matsudaira

  • Biography from the Archives of askART

    John Matsudaira biographical photo
    The following was submitted by Peter Matsudaira, the artist's son:Born: November 26, 1922 in Seattle, Washington; died: January 30, 2007 in Seattle, Washington

    At the age of 6 my father went to Kanazawa, Japan where he lived till the age of 12. While there he won a city wide school art contest for grade school children. He returned to Seattle at the age of 12. When WWII broke out he and his family were interned in the Minidoka relocation camp in Idaho in 1942. From there in 1943 he joined the Army and served with the famed 442nd Regimental Battalion. In 1944 in actions in Italy he was severly wounded and returned stateside to convalesce. After his discharge from the U.S. Army in 1947 he attended Burnley Art School in Seattle for 3 years.

    He started working at the Boeing Company as a draftsman in graphics and then after 32 years retired. In his off hours he was an artist working in watercolors, oil and acrylic. His painting was on the cover painting on the brochure for the Seattle Worlds Fair Art Exhibition in 1962. His work has been exhibited in galleries in Seattle, including the Seattle A rt Museaum, Zoe Duzanne Art Gallery. His paintings among others, are in the collections of the Seattle Art Museum and Seattle University. He was part of the "Northwest School" and was good friends, with Mark Tobey, Paul Horiuchi, Kenji Nomura, Nick Damascas, Jacob Elshin, Clarence Harris and George Tsutakawa. He was not able to paint as he got older due to an eye condition.

    One of my favorite painting of my father's is part of the King County Public Art Collection and hangs at Harborview Hospital in Seattle. It is called "Nature, Form and Movement" an acyrlic on canvas which he painted in 1978.

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