Hawai‘i Artists

In the interest of understanding and appreciating the development of contemporary visual arts in Hawaiʻi, it is crucial to remember who the Hawaiʻi artists are and have been. Jean Charlot’s longstanding interest in and contributions to art in Hawaiʻi—by his creation of his own internationally renowned art in a Hawai‘i context, his leadership in the artistic community in Hawaiʻi, and his writing of many articles on artists and exhibitions of art for Hawaiʻi newspapers and magazines—suggest that the Jean Charlot Foundation website is an appropriate place to note who Hawaiʻi’s artists are. “Contemporary” for our purposes here will be roughly construed as beginning after World War II and continuing towards the moving target that is “now.” Any such span of time can be only a roughly construed notion. Many “contemporary artists” started before World War II and, of course, art never ends.

As a starting point for recognizing who Hawaiʻi’s contemporary artists are, we are referencing here five readily available books that have captured information on many such artists. Our listing of artists included in the five books should enable curious researchers to easily find information in those books. Perhaps someday those four books will be posted online, which would enable this site to offer links to the contents of those books, but, for now, the outlines of which artists can be found in which books should be helpful to all who seek to explore the history of contemporary art in Hawaiʻi. There are plans to develop some new artists-of-Hawaiʻi books to catch up with contemporary artists who were not included in the four books. If plans for those new books do not reach fruition, perhaps it will be possible to use this website as a place to provide information on additional artists. In any case, the purpose of this section of the Charlot website at this time will be limited to providing lists of the artists covered in the four books. It is hoped that these lists will prove helpful to researchers interested in contemporary Hawaiʻi art. There will, of course, be a great deal of overlap between the four books. Those who consult these lists will discover that a number of artists have been covered in more than one book.