Shirley Ximena Hopper Russell (May 16, 1886 – February 6, 1985), also known as Shirley Marie Russell, was an American artist best known for her paintings of Hawaii and her still lifes of Hawaiian flowers. She was born Shirley Ximena Hopper in Del Rey, California, in 1886. She graduated in 1907 from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, where she discovered art. Shirley married Lawrence Russell, an engineer, in 1909. When he died in 1912, she began teaching in Palo Alto, and dabbling in painting. In 1921, she and her son came to Hawaii for a visit and decided to stay. She studied under Hawaiian artist

Lionel Walden Lionel Walden (May 22, 1862WALDEN, Lionel
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during the 1920s and traveling to Europe several times to further her art education. She studied in Paris during the 1930s and the cubist influence can be seen in a number of her works. She taught art at

President William McKinley High School President William McKinley High School, more commonly referred to as McKinley High School, is a comprehensive public high school in the Honolulu District of the Hawaii State Department of Education. It serves grades nine through twelve. McKinley i ...

in Honolulu for more than 20 years. Around 1935-1936, the Japanese publisher

Watanabe Shozaburo Watanabe ( and other variantsSee #Miscellaneous) is a Japanese surname derived from the noble and samurai Watanabe clan, a branch of the Minamoto clan, descending from the Emperor Saga (786-842), the 52nd Emperor of Japan, and refers to a locat ...

(1885–1962) published more than several woodblock prints she designed. The majority of these prints depict colorful and detailed tropical flowers, while at least one print, Carmel Mission, is a California landscape. In the course of her art career, Russell had three one-woman exhibitions at the

Honolulu Museum of Art 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 ...

, and taught art at the

University of Hawaii A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

and the

. She launched many young artists on their careers when they were her students at McKinley High School, including

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 ...

(1926-) and

John Chin Young John Chin Young 容澤泉 (1909–1997) was a painter who was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on March 26, 1909. He was the son of Chinese immigrants and began drawing at the age of eight, stimulated by Chinese calligraphy, which he learned in Chin ...

(1909–1997). Although she painted in representational style herself, she was a staunch supporter of abstract art, and did some abstract work herself throughout her career. She continued to paint almost daily until her death in Honolulu in 1985, at the age of 98. The

Hawaii State Art Museum The No. 1 Capitol District Building, on the site of the former Armed Services YMCA Building, now houses the Hawaii State Art Museum and the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. History While they were both in the cabinet, under King ...

Isaacs Art Center The Isaacs Art Center is an art museum and retail gallery in Waimea on the Island of Hawaii. It is operated by and for the benefit of the Hawaii Preparatory Academy; all proceeds benefit the school's scholarship fund. In addition to its retail ...

, and

Tokyo National Museum The or TNM is an art museum in Ueno Park in the Taitō ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the four museums operated by the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage ( :ja:国立文化財機構), is considered the oldest national museum in Japan, ...

are among the public collections holding works by Shirley Russell.Haar, Francis and Neogy, Prithwish, "Artists of Hawaii: Nineteen Painters and Sculptors", University of Hawaii Press, 1974, p. 104

References

* Department of Education, State of Hawaii, ''Artists of Hawaii'', Honolulu, Department of Education, State of Hawaii, 1985, pp. 61–66. * Ellis, George R. and Marcia Morse, ''A Hawaii Treasury, Masterpieces from the Honolulu Academy of Arts'', Tokyo, Asahi Shimbun, 2000, 156, 225. * Forbes, David W., "Encounters with Paradise: Views of Hawaii and its People, 1778-1941", Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1992, 210-146. * Forbes, David W., ''He Makana, The Gertrude Mary Joan Damon Haig Collection of Hawaiian Art, Paintings and Prints'', Hawaii State Foundation of Culture and the Arts, 2013, pp. 50–57 & 76-77 * Haar, Francis and Neogy, Prithwish, "Artists of Hawaii: Nineteen Painters and Sculptors", University of Hawaii Press, 1974, 104-111. * Hartwell, Patricia L. (editor), ''Retrospective 1967-1987'',

Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts The Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts was established by the Hawaii State Legislature in 1965 to "promote, perpetuate, preserve, and encourage culture and the arts, history and the humanities as central to the quality of life of the ...

, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1987, p. 63 * Papanikolas, Theresa and DeSoto Brown, ''Art Deco Hawai'i'', Honolulu, Honolulu Museum of Art, 2014, , pp. 101–103 * Sandulli, Justin M., ''Troubled Paradise: Madge Tennent at a Hawaiian Crossroads'', Durham, NC: Duke University, 2016 * Yoshihara, Lisa A., ''Collective Visions, 1967-1997'', awaiiState Foundation on Culture and the Arts, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1997, 25. *Hustace, James J. ''Painters and Etchers of Hawaii-A Biographical Collection-1780-2018,'' Library of Congress (C)

Footnotes

External links

Shirley Russell
''Artists of Hawaii'': Season 1, Episode 9 (

PBS Hawaii KHET (channel 11), branded as PBS Hawai'i, is a PBS member television station in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States, serving the Hawaiian Islands. Owned by the Hawaii Public Television Foundation, the station maintains studios on Sand Island Access ...

: 1984) {{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Shirley Marie 20th-century American painters American women painters 1886 births 1985 deaths Printmakers from Hawaii 20th-century American women artists American women printmakers 20th-century American printmakers