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the city, upon leaving the
Midwest for the San Francisco Bay Area, he had covered no more than a dozen. According to Chicago historian Tim Samuelson, Yamashita's stated goal was to paint a public work every day. He would regularly approach the owners of buildings with water towers, sometimes convincing them to pay for the supplies. On hot days, Samuelson notes, Yamashita would swim in the water towers to cool down. The first towers in his series were painted red and royal blue over Piper's Alley and numbered 1 and 2. Other towers were painted vibrant colors such as purple, blue-green, yellow, and bright orange. The water tower series was part of his broader "Environment Art for Everywhere" project and was partially funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in cooperation with the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. When interviewed by the Chicago Tribune in 1971 during the initial stage of his project, Yamashita declared, "The whole city is my studio, where I paint only bright, peaceful things." Although he received institutional and municipal support, at times he would act without permission and cover additional surfaces such as stop signs and no parking signs, much to the dismay of city officials.
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farmers. "Golden Wave" was inspired by the surrounding Kansas landscape and depicted an abstracted scene of wheat fields and grain elevators under a vivid blue sky and radiant sun. Only six years later, the mural was covered by the bank when it sought to replace the facade of the building for "aesthetic purposes". Yamashita's residency also included his participation in the town's annual Smoky Hill River
Festival, during which he painted a giant abstract sunflower on a municipal pool turned ice skating rink in Oakdale Park. The mural covered an area of about 7,000 square feet. Locals were invited to assist the painter with his project. The mural fell into disrepair and by 2012
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mural was removed with the exception of small sections in the shape of leaping goats near the entrance of the building. On
Michigan Ave, he painted the exteriors of seven underground storefronts in his rainbow color scheme. In addition to his stated goal of transforming Chicago's urban landscape with
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newspaper, where he often expressed his political views. In the mid-60s, Yamashita worked at the US Air Force base's Chofu
Elementary School and would, under permission from the school principal, John Demos, use the hallways during weekends to create his artwork on top of canvases used to protect the
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In addition to covering the walls of playgrounds, commercial buildings, parking garages, and other public spaces he sought to cover every water tower in
Chicago with his bright palette, each painted in a single hue and numbered in sequential order. Although he intended to paint 1,000 water towers in
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he was invited to propose a mural design for the town auditorium. Completed in 1977, "The Good Earth" occupied two walls of the building and was sponsored by the Neligh Arts
Council. Dubbed "the Blue Cow" mural, it depicted a cow and calf in a prairie scene flanked by a vertical rainbow and a plow,
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By 1980, it was estimated that
Yamashita had painted more than 20 large-scale murals in Chicago, largely focusing on the lower Michigan Ave area of the city In addition to his signature rainbow patterns, he created "super graphic" works, large-scale illusionist murals that appear to transform space
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in 1976. Within a year of arriving from Japan, Yamashita worked alongside an activist group known as CVL, Inc ("Conservative Vice Lords), a former street gang from
Chicago's West Side, at a community-focused non-profit art center called Art & Soul in the North Lawndale neighborhood of the city.
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as an artist-in-residence in order to create a mural for the south side of the First
National Bank and Company building. The project was sponsored by the Salina Arts Commission and received much local fanfare, including the praise of the bank president, who favorably cited his homage to local
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While
Yamashita was a widely popular public artist in the Midwest, many of his murals later suffered at the hands of developers who painted over or covered his designs in the process of renovations or expansions. In 1981, for example, he was invited to
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The art space was affiliated with Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art. Enlisting volunteers from the neighborhood, Yamashita painted his "Rainbow" mural (1969), which covered the front and side exterior walls of its one-story storefront building.
68:, he claimed to have first traveled to the U.S. as a journalist covering the 1968 Democratic Convention. Earlier newspaper profiles of Yamashita, however, state that the initial purpose of his visit was to teach East Asian spatial design at
55:, he attended elementary school in a bomb shelter as warplanes could be heard overhead. He began drawing at an early age, covering the walls of his childhood home. As a young man, he was a cartoonist for local publications like the
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observes that Yamashita "showed how murals could be understood not just as community-based art but as huge environmental installations, breaking free from the gallery, changing city dweller's consciousness."
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For example, he painted the exterior of Chicago's famed Billy Goat's Tavern, located at 430 North Michigan Ave, in thin rainbow stripes after agreeing to produce the mural in exchange for beer and food. The
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with geometric compositions. His celebrated super graphic work "Balance of Power," which was located along lower Wacker Drive, appears as the backdrop in a portion of
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When Yamashita arrived in Chicago in the late 1960s, he was struck by the vast potential of the city for public art. "The whole city is my canvas," he told
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Rebecca Zorach, "Making Space, 1961-1976" in "Art in Chicago", Maggie Taft and Robert Cozzolino, eds, University of Chicago Press, 2018.
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Rebecca Zorach, "Making Space, 1961-1976" in "Art in Chicago", Maggie Taft and Robert Cozzolino, eds, University of Chicago Press, 2018.
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Rebecca Zorach, "Making Space, 1961-1976" in "Art in Chicago", Maggie Taft and Robert Cozzolino, eds, University of Chicago Press, 2018.
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and other regional newspapers inspired more municipalities and businesses to commission Yamashita for murals across the Midwest. In
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22:(1933–2009) was a Japanese-American artist primarily known as the creator of more than 100 public murals throughout the
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and quickly became part of a tight-knit circle of artists who sought to beautify the city with public art.
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he painted on the facade of a three story hardware store at the corner of North Avenue and Wieland Street.
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142:. More recently, "Balance of Power" and other notable Chicago murals by Yamashita were discussed on the
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Rebecca Zorach, "Art & Soul: An Experimental Friendship between the Street and a Museum",
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Dan Egler, "Water Towers Blossom Under Artists's Deft Brush", Chicago Tribune July 23, 1972
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color, he proposed converting the city's elevated train tracks into sprawling bike paths.
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379:"When Sachio Hit Little Whitewater, Wis., the Explosion Was Both Cultural and Colorful"
261:"When Sachio Hit Little Whitewater, Wis., the Explosion Was Both Cultural and Colorful"
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a new commissioned work by Brooklyn based artist Molly Dilworth was installed.
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magazines in the mid 1970s in addition to regular coverage of his work in the
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One of his most well-known murals is based on a Japanese woodblock print by
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between 1968 and 1982, and later as an abstract painter and muralist in the
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rainbow stripes were his signature motif in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
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395:"Water Tanks: Urban Menace or Historic Amenity", ArchitectureChicago Plus
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Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Willamette University, Salem, Oregon
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floors and walls from paint splatter. In a 1976 interview with
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A Chicago Tavern: A Goat, a Curse, and the American Dream
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sun, and ear of corner on another side of the building.
489:"Visiting artist unveils plans for 1st National Bank",
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Jake Thompson, "Yamashita style is of the rainbow",
428:Terri Schultz, "Ah So! 1,000 Water Towers Wanted",
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276:Terri Schultz, "Ah So! 1,000 Water Towers Wanted",
148:"What Became of Artist Behind These 1970s Murals,"
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130:"The Wave" (1971) mural has since been removed.
126:depicting Mount Fuji and massive waves, which
150:which first aired on December 12, 2018.
566:Japanese emigrants to the United States
551:Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area
237:Maggie Taft and Robert Cozzolino, eds,
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146:segment "Ask Geoffrey" in the episode
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303:, March 03, 1975, accessed 04-06-2018
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571:American artists of Japanese descent
241:, University of Chicago Press, 2018.
385:, May 03, 1976. accessed 04-06-2018
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181:Only a portion of the mural remains
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443:Community Murals: The People's Art
209:Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
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314:"The Nation. Painting The Town",
299:"The Nation. Painting The Town",
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330:Institutions and Imaginaries
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76:. He eventually settled in
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16:Japanese-American artist
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43:Yamashita was born in
28:San Francisco Bay Area
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463:Lincoln Journal Star
49:Kagoshima Prefecture
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58:Nishinippon Shimbun
556:American muralists
517:The Salina Journal
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504:The Salina Journal
491:The Salina Journal
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199:Public Collections
140:The Blues Brothers
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39:Early life
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45:Kagoshima
122:artist
120:ukiyo-e
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