Alliance & Collectivity: Retracing the Vibrant History of Asian American Artistic Communities in Interwar California
American artists of Asian descent working in California before World War II made diverse, innovative, and impactful contributions to American modernism—more than many might expect.
In this lecture, art historian and curator ShiPu Wang draws from two decades of research to outline the rich yet largely understudied history of these artists, who navigated the challenges of the Exclusion Era (1885–1965), a time marked by anti-immigration and anti-Asian laws. Defying systemic barriers and xenophobic perceptions, they forged paths of self-representation, built transcultural collectives, and organized groundbreaking exhibitions that redefined artistic and cultural belonging. Some participated in landmark modernist showcases, while others created their own platforms, bringing together a wide range of voices and perspectives. Through meticulous research, Professor Wang brings these artists’ work, legacies, and influence to light—challenging and expanding our understanding of 20th-century American art history.
This is the Hannah and Russell Kully Distinguished Fellow Lecture in American Art.
About the Speaker
ShiPu Wang is The Huntington’s 2024–25 Hannah and Russell Kully Distinguished Fellow in American Art as well as professor and Coats Family Endowed Chair in the Arts at the University of California, Merced. His scholarship focuses on rediscovering and reevaluating the work and legacy of diasporic Asian American artists in the first half of the 20th century.
Wang is the author and editor of four books and numerous journal articles, including The Other American Moderns: Matsura, Ishigaki, Noda, Hayakawa (Penn State University Press, 2017), which won the 2018 Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Book Prize. He also curated two touring exhibitions: Chiura Obata: An American Modern (internationally toured 2018–2020) and Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo, currently on view through Aug. 17, 2025, at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the exhibition’s second stop on a national tour. Both exhibitions’ fully illustrated catalogs were published by the University of California Press in 2018 and 2023, respectively.
In addition to teaching and curating, Wang has served in advisory and scholarly capacities on the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery’s Board of Commissioners, the editorial board of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s academic journal American Art as a SAAM/Terra Foundation Senior Fellow, and as a Terra Foundation Senior Fellow at the Brooklyn Museum.
Miki Hayakawa (American, 1899–1953), Music, ca. 1934. Oil on canvas, 36 x 34 in. (91.4 x 86.4 cm). | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Gift of Ross Anderson. Photo by Trey Bailey.