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Enlarge Image (79.7KB)
painting
H: 18 in, W: 22 in
canvas
oil
Subject Tags
barracks
Concentration Camps, Topaz
mountain
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A Night
Hisako Hibi [bio]
Topaz, Utah,
January 1944
(96.601.22)
Gift of Ibuki Hibi Lee
Hisako Hibi Collection
Description
Unframed stretched canvas. Image of very dark barracks with a mountain in the background.
Inscription
Signed, LL: Hisako Hibi / Jan 1944 ; BACK: 'Night' By Hisako Hibi Topaz Utah 1944
History
This painting is the only known night scene Hisako Hibi painted while at Topaz concentration camp. A few barracks are visible in the distance, discernible in the darkness only by the glow of lights from the barrack interiors. The structures are framed by the sharp geometric outline of the mountain range in the background. The darkness overwhelms and smothers the image of camp. Even the yellow lights of the buildings are only dim suggestions of activity in this otherwise somber scene. Hibi most likely completely imagined this scene given the restrictions that prohibited internees from roaming the camp grounds at night.
All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from materials in this collection
must be submitted to the Hirasaki National Resource Center
at the Japanese American National Museum (hnrc@janm.org).
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