Encounters With Paradise: Views of Hawaii and Its People, 1778-1941 - Tapa dura

Since the beginning of the era of European exploration in the Pacific, in the late eighteenth century, the Hawaiian Islands have been the subject of literally thousands of paintings, prints, and drawings. In this unprecedented survey, author David W. Forbes frames the context in which visiting and resident artists experienced and portrayed the islands, and presents a selection of their finest renderings. The artworks create a revealing continuum of the dramatic changes affecting Hawaii and its people over a period of more than 160 years.
The earliest paintings are by John Webber, official artist for Captain James Cook's third Pacific voyage. During the first-known European landing in Hawaii, on January 21, 1778, Webber went ashore with Cook, sketching the terrain, dwellings, and native people. Other explorer-artists followed.
In the mid-nineteenth century, Western missionaries and traders settled in the Hawaiian Islands. First whaling and later sugar dominated the economy. Artists, many of them amateurs, remained for longer periods of time, producing pictures that reflect true familiarity with Hawaii's everyday life and customs.
Late in the nineteenth century, with the arrival and residence of artists such as Charles Furneaux, Joseph Strong, and Jules Tavernier, a distinctive and recognizable school of Hawaiian painting developed. Known as the Volcano School, it is perhaps best exemplified by Tavernier's sensational depictions of craters and eruptions. Other artists, fresh from exposure to the current trends in Europe and America, reinterpreted the lush light and varied landscape of Hawaii to create a distinctive body of work.
With the dawning of the twentieth century, art in Hawaii reflected the diminishing isolation of the islands and the emergence of a multicultural modernist tradition. Important mainland artists, notably Georgia O'Keeffe, visited the islands and created striking and original images. Resident artist such as Isami Doi and Keichi Kimura developed a legacy of Hawaiian modernism.
In the unique collection, we discover a place--its geography, culture, and history--as well as the character, background, and training of the artists who tried to capture it. This landmark survey is a tribute to the pictorial richness and diversity of Western encounters with Hawaii.