The Metcalf Chateau group at the Honolulu Museum of Art in 1954

The Metcalf Chateau, also known as The Group of Seven, was a group of

Asian-American Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of such immigrants). Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous people ...

artists with ties to

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

. The name is derived from a house slated for demolition on Metcalf Street in Honolulu, in which they exhibited in 1954. The exhibition was seen by Robert Griffin, director of the

Honolulu Academy of Arts The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. The museum has one of the largest single col ...

, who arranged for the artists to have a group show at the museum. The group's members were

Satoru Abe Satoru Abe (born 13 June 1926) is a Japanese American sculptor and painter. Biography Abe was born in Moiliili, a district of Honolulu, Hawaii. He attended President William McKinley High School, where he took art lessons from Shirley Xime ...

(born 1926),

Bumpei Akaji Bumpei Akaji (1921–2002) was an American sculptor from Hawaii. He was known for welding large copper and brass sculptures which can be seen all over Hawaii as part of Hawaii's Art in Public Places program. Biography Akaji was born in Lawai, ...

(1921-2002), Edmund Chung, Tetsuo Ochikubo (1923-1975), Jerry T. Okimoto (1924-1998), James Park, and

Tadashi Sato Tadashi Sato (February 6, 1923 – June 4, 2005) was an American artist. He was born in Kaupakalua on the Hawaiian island of Maui. His father had been a pineapple laborer, merchant, and calligrapher, and Tadashi's grandfather was a sumi-e ...

(1923-2005). The Metcalf Chateau overlaps with a loosely associated group of eleven

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

artists of Japanese descent, all ''

nisei is a Japanese-language term used in countries in North America and South America to specify the ethnically Japanese children born in the new country to Japanese-born immigrants (who are called ). The are considered the second generation, ...

'' (second generation) born in Hawaii. These artists are

Isami Doi Isami Doi (May 12, 1903 – November 29, 1965) was an American printmaker and painter. Biography Doi was the first son of Japanese immigrants, born in Ewa on the island of Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands in 1903. He moved with his family to the ...

Keichi Kimura Keichi Kimura (1914–1988) was a painter and illustrator who was born in Waiʻanae, Hawaiʻi in 1914. He received his first art instruction from teacher Shirley Ximena Hopper Russell, Shirley Russell while attending President William McKinley ...

Sueko Matsueda Kimura Sueko Matsueda Kimura (June 10, 1912 – December 25, 2001) was an American artist. She was born in Papaikou, Hawaii in 1912. She received her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, whe ...

Harue Oyama McVay Harue Oyama McVay (born 1928) is a ceramist born in Honolulu, Hawaii. While growing up, she had the opportunity to watch the landscape painter D. Howard Hitchcock (1861–1943), who rented his studio from the Oyama family. As an undergraduate at t ...

, Tetsuo Ochikubo, Jerry T. Okimoto,

Toshiko Takaezu Toshiko Takaezu (June 17, 1922 – March 9, 2011) was an American ceramic artist, painter, sculptor, and educator who was known for her rounded, closed forms that viewed ceramics as a fine art and more than a functional vessel. She is of Japan ...

, and Harry Tsuchidana.

(1903-1965) was the oldest of these eleven artists and mentored many of them.''Densho Encyclopedia''
/ref>

References

* Matsumoto, Lacy, "Hawaii artist honors late friend with exhibition - Satoru Abe to show his work alongside pieces by Jerry Okimoto at Nu'uanu Gallery", ''Honolulu Advertiser'', July 28, 2008, D1.
Mark, Steven, "Metcalf Chateau Show", ''Honolulu Star-Advertiser'', July 27, 2014, p. F7
* Honolulu Museum of Art, ''Spalding House Self-guided Tour, Sculpture Garden'', 2014, p. 12

Footnotes

{{reflist * American artist groups and collectives