Framer turned artist : Bumpei Usui, the painter of Crystal Bridges’ ‘Still Life: Kuniyoshi’s Studio,’ forged relationships as a popular American framer that lead to an unexpected painting career of his own.
Posted on Monday, November 10, 2008
Photograph submitted Bumpei Usui, ‘ Still Life: Kuniyoshi’s Studio, ’ 1930, oil on canvas, 50 x 32 in.
Editor’s Note: This is the fifth in a series of five weekly features exploring the artists behind the first five modern art paintings recently announced as part of the permanent collection of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
BENTONVILLE — Google the names of the four artists previously featured in this series — Stuart Davis, Romare Bearden, Lyonel Feininger and Yasuo Kuniyoshi — and you’re going to get an endless collection of biographies, reference material and examples of their art.
Google the name of Japanese-American artist Bumpei Usui and all you’re likely to get is that he lived from 1898 to 1994, spent significant time in New York City, and summers with the Woodstock Art Colony in Upstate New York. You may even happen across a few examples of his work.
The few biographies that do exist, even on the Web sites of some of the most
prestigious art museums across the country, are brief. But several curators and art historians interviewed for this story agree Usui’s name is beginning to find its way into conversations throughout the American art world and his paintings will likely begin popping up in more collections around the country. Among those is the permanent collection of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, scheduled to open in northeast Bentonville in 2010. Usui’s 1930 oil painting, “ Still Life: Kuniyoshi’s Studio” will serve as a window into an unlikely painting talent that emerged during the early period of modernism. Yasuo Kuniyoshi, whose New York City studio Usui’s paint- ing depicts, remains the poster artist of Japanese-Americans working in the early part of the 20 th century. But, according to Sylvia Yount, curator at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, it was likely the decision of Kuniyoshi and other up-andcoming artists of the time to bring their paintings to Usui’s frame shop at 5 E. 14 th St. in New York City that opened a door for the Nagano-born craftsman to realize success as a painter himself.
“ Here comes Usui into New York at the right time, ” said Yount, whose museum recently found a wealth of biographical information on Usui in Japan and had it translated into English. “ He arrives in 1921 and finds himself in the modernist scene. He became a very popular framer and furniture designer and made the right connections. ”
A story published in New Yorker magazine on Jan. 5, 1935, confirms Yount’s research: “(Usui ) is one of the busiest picture framers in the city now. He sometimes accepts payment in trade from his colleagues, framing several pictures and keeping one. He’ll do this only for painters whose work he admires, though, preferring to let the owners owe him the money if they’re broke. ”
Kuniyoshi, whose oil painting “ Little Joe With Cow ” will also adorn the gallery walls at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, was by no means poor, but he was a regular customer of Usui’s. Through her research, Yount has learned Kuniyoshi actually gave Usui art lessons in exchange for framing work on several occasions. The two Japanese-Americans became close friends and, while keeping residences in New York City, both became active in the Woodstock Art Colony in upstate New York.
Since the bulk of Usui’s time was spent crafting frames for more prominent artists, he never developed the prolific body of work Kuniyoshi and others did. But he enjoyed more than moderate success as a painter. In fact, the New Yorker story suggests there was some nervousness in the art community when Usui’s first painting sold in 1935.
“ The success of Mr. Usui has caused wide alarm among other painters, because if a real demand for his pictures develops, he will have no time to frame the work of his copractitioners on tick. ”
Usui was first recognized for his still life and even painted a portrait of Kuniyoshi lounging in his studio that has since found its way into the permanent collection at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D. C. But according to Yount, Usui’s depictions of skyscrapers and urban America garnered the most attention. An example of such work is “ 14 th Street, ” a 1924 oil painting recently acquired by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
And while Usui was never a household name, he enjoyed a level of success few ever realize. According to a biography provided by D. Wigmore Fine Art Inc., which hosted an exhibition of Usui’s work shortly after the artist’s death in 1994, he first exhibited at the Society of Independent Artists in 1925 and then in 1926 in a group show at the Daniel Gallery in New York with Man Ray, Thomas Hart Benton, Marsden Hartley, Charles Demuth, Robert Henri, Kuniyoshi and others.
The biography states Usui also showed at the Art Institute of Chicago and Washington Art Gallery in 1931, where “ his paintings gained recognition and admiration for their color and rare quality of expressive line. ” Usui’s first one-man exhibition was at the Laurel Gallery in New York in 1946, while the Salander-O’Reilly Gallery in New York held a retrospective exhibition of his art that traveled throughout Japan in 1979.
Usui’s name and work are beginning to surface again. And DeeDee Wigmore, president of D. Wigmore Fine Art Inc., isn’t surprised.
“ I’ve had a fair amount of opportunity to look at Usui’s work and he deserves the recognition, ” Wigmore said. “ There are now a number of museums focusing on successful Japanese-Americans and, in time, I think we’ll start learning about more Chinese-Americans as well. There’s been a surge in interest of late.
“ Usui’s work is very modern, obviously part of a very successful group of artists in New York and Woodstock. There’s a very strong interest in work of the 1930 s and 1940 s, partly because of the economic times we’re going through right now. There’s a lot of talk of The Great Depression, a period when Usui, Kuniyoshi and others were working. ”
Crystal Bridges founder Alice Walton obviously shares that interest.
“ What I find extremely exciting is that Crystal Bridges not only has a Kuniyoshi, but went out and acquired a Usui as well, ” Yount said. “ It ties together that relationship and puts it on display for everyone. I haven’t seen the frame on Crystal Bridges’ Kuniyoshi, but there’s probably a pretty good chance it was a Usui frame. If so, you all of a sudden have an even deeper story. ”
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