Oral history interview with Chuzo Tamotzu, 1964 September 3

Collection Information

Size: 11 Pages, Transcript

Format: Originally recorded on 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 1 digital wav file. Duration is 40 min.

Summary: An interview of Chuzo Tamotzu (Tamotsu) conducted 1964 September 3 by Sylvia Loomis for the Archives of American Art.

Tamotzu discusses studying Occidental, Oriental art in Japan; traveling to Korea, Manchuria and China, South Sea Islands, Singapore, then Europe for a year; coming to New York in 1920; his involvement with An American Group; Juliana Force recruiting him for the Federal Art Project; being on the Easel Project and also on the Graphic Art Project; the Works Projects Administration; given "pink-slip" on the Project since he was not a U.S. citizen; stint in the U.S. Army, Office of Strategic Service doing propaganda paintings for psychological war material for the Japanese Army and soldiers; settling in Santa Fe, N.M.; Oriental painting; and Artist Equity Association. Tamotzu mentions Beatrice Mandelman, Louis Ribak, Robert Philip, Stuart Eddy, Frederick Knight, and Olive Rush.

Biographical/Historical Note

Chuzo Tamotzu (1888-1975) was a Japanese American painter based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Tamotzu was born in Japan and came to the United States in 1920. He moved to Santa Fe in 1948.

Provenance

Conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's New Deal and the Arts project, which includes over 400 interviews of artists, administrators, historians, and others involved with the federal government's art programs and the activities of the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s and early 1940s.

Language Note

English .