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Kazuo Nakamura (1926-2002)
Kazuo Nakamura, a nisei, was born in Vancouver, B.C. and died at Toronto. Nakamura was a teenager during World War II. when he and his family were uprooted from their home and sent to Tashme, an internment camp in interior British Columbia. After the war, the family settled in Ontario, where he studied art, first at the Hamilton Technical School and then at the Central Technical School in Toronto. After graduation he became a commercial artist, but he spent most of his time making delicate watercolours and small oil paintings, usually of stylized, abstract landscapes. His earliest exhibited works are of Vancouver (1941) and Tashme (1944). His paintings of the camps are believed to be the only ones created by someone who became a professional artist. In the mid-1950s, he joined the group of abstract artists called PAINTERS ELEVEN. His paintings were notable for their simplicity of structure and coloration, a characteristic that set them apart from the work of other members of the group. His works often consisted of geometric patterns, a series of squares or parallel lines intended to produce a quiet, thoughtful mood in the viewer. His latest exhibit, Kazuo Nakamura: A Human Measure, was shown at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2004.
| The late Kazuo Nakamura, at the
opening of Toronto’s Gendai
Gallery, with his 1956 work
Block Structure.
(photo: Yusuke Tanaka)
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| Kazuo Nakamura, Inner Structure,
1956 – oil on masonite.
(photo: Art Gallery of Ontatio)
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