Roy Kiyooka
Encyclopedia
Roy Kenzie Kiyooka, was an influential Canadian
arts teacher, painter, poet, photographer, multi-media artist of national and international acclaim.
A Nisei
or second generation Japanese Canadian, Kiyooka was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan
and raised in Calgary, Alberta. His parents were Harry Shigekiyo Kiyooka and Mary Kiyoshi Kiyooka. Her samurai
father was the, still famous, 17th head of the Muso Jikiden Eishin-ryu
school of swordmanship. Roy Kiyookas brother Harry Mitsuo Kiyooka also became an abstract painter, a professor of art, and sometimes curator of his brother's work. Harry Kiyoka taught art at the University of Alberta at Calgary, now The University of Calgary, from 1961 to 1988.
In 1942, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor
, the family was uprooted and moved into rural Alberta. Roy Kiyooka did not finish high school.
From 1946 to 1949 he studied with Jock Macdonald
and Illingworth Holey Kerr at the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art. With a scholarship he was able in 1955 to go to Mexico for eight months to study under James Pinto at the Instituto Allende in San Miguel de Allende
. In 1956 he began teaching at the Regina College School of Art
. Regina was a center for his style of painting, but Kiyooka left for Vancouver in 1959 and so did not become a member of the Regina 5-group.
At the time Kiyooka was very impressed with Clement Greenberg
's ideas. In the summers from 1957 to 1959 he took part in the Emma Lake Artists' Workshops of the University of Saskatchewan
, and there worked with Will Barnet
and Barnett Newman
.
From 1960 to 1964 he was at the Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr University of Art and Design), from 1965 to 1970 at the Sir George Williams University in Montréal (now Concordia University). In 1971/72 he taught at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax and then, from 1973 to 1991, at the Fine Arts Department of the University of British Columbia
in Vancouver.
He was made a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
in 1965. In the same year he represented Canada in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and won a Silver Medal at the Eighth Sao Paulo Biennial. In 1975 the Vancouver Art Gallery
organized a twentyfive-year retrospective of his work.
In 1978 he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada
.
At the end of the 1960s Kiyooka had lost faith in modernism and stopped painting. He began to use performance, film and music. He also began to use photography. But in the early 1970s he also produced two series of sculptures, the StoneDGloves: Alms for Soft Palms, shown at the National Gallery
in Ottawa and the 16 Cedar Laminated Sculpture series, shown alongside the Ottoman/Court Suite of silk-screen prints, at the Bau Xi Gallery in Vancouver in May, 1971.
His artwork is represented by the Catriona Jeffries Gallery
in Vancouver, Canada.
Roy Kiyooka.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
arts teacher, painter, poet, photographer, multi-media artist of national and international acclaim.
A Nisei
Nisei
During the early years of World War II, Japanese Americans were forcibly relocated from their homes in the Pacific coast states because military leaders and public opinion combined to fan unproven fears of sabotage...
or second generation Japanese Canadian, Kiyooka was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan
Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan
Moose Jaw is a city in south-central Saskatchewan, Canada on the Moose Jaw River. It is situated on the Trans-Canada Highway, west of Regina. Residents of Moose Jaw are known as Moose Javians. It is best known as a retirement and tourist city that serves as a hub to the hundreds of small towns...
and raised in Calgary, Alberta. His parents were Harry Shigekiyo Kiyooka and Mary Kiyoshi Kiyooka. Her samurai
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
father was the, still famous, 17th head of the Muso Jikiden Eishin-ryu
Muso Jikiden Eishin-ryu
, is a koryū sword art, and one of the most widely practiced schools of iaijutsu in the world. Often referred to simply as "Eishin-ryū," it claims an unbroken lineage dating back to the sixteenth century....
school of swordmanship. Roy Kiyookas brother Harry Mitsuo Kiyooka also became an abstract painter, a professor of art, and sometimes curator of his brother's work. Harry Kiyoka taught art at the University of Alberta at Calgary, now The University of Calgary, from 1961 to 1988.
In 1942, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
, the family was uprooted and moved into rural Alberta. Roy Kiyooka did not finish high school.
From 1946 to 1949 he studied with Jock Macdonald
Jock Macdonald
Jock Macdonald was a member of Painters Eleven , whose goal was to promote abstract art in Canada.-Early life:He was born in May 1897 in Thurso, Scotland...
and Illingworth Holey Kerr at the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art. With a scholarship he was able in 1955 to go to Mexico for eight months to study under James Pinto at the Instituto Allende in San Miguel de Allende
San Miguel de Allende
San Miguel de Allende is a city and municipality located in the far eastern part of the state of Guanajuato in central Mexico. It is 274 km from Mexico City and 97 km from the state capital of Guanajuato...
. In 1956 he began teaching at the Regina College School of Art
University of Regina
The University of Regina is a public research university located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Founded in 1911 as a private denominational high school of the Methodist Church of Canada, it began an association with the University of Saskatchewan as a junior college in 1925, and was disaffiliated...
. Regina was a center for his style of painting, but Kiyooka left for Vancouver in 1959 and so did not become a member of the Regina 5-group.
At the time Kiyooka was very impressed with Clement Greenberg
Clement Greenberg
Clement Greenberg was an American essayist known mainly as an influential visual art critic closely associated with American Modern art of the mid-20th century...
's ideas. In the summers from 1957 to 1959 he took part in the Emma Lake Artists' Workshops of the University of Saskatchewan
University of Saskatchewan
The University of Saskatchewan is a Canadian public research university, founded in 1907, and located on the east side of the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. An "Act to establish and incorporate a University for the Province of Saskatchewan" was passed by the...
, and there worked with Will Barnet
Will Barnet
Will Barnet is an American artist known for his paintings, watercolors, drawings, and prints depicting the human figure and animals, both in casual scenes of daily life and in transcendent dreamlike worlds.-Biography:...
and Barnett Newman
Barnett Newman
Barnett Newman was an American artist. He is seen as one of the major figures in abstract expressionism and one of the foremost of the color field painters.-Early life:...
.
From 1960 to 1964 he was at the Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr University of Art and Design), from 1965 to 1970 at the Sir George Williams University in Montréal (now Concordia University). In 1971/72 he taught at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax and then, from 1973 to 1991, at the Fine Arts Department of the University of British Columbia
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
in Vancouver.
He was made a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts is a Canadian arts-related institution founded in 1880, under the patronage of the Governor General of Canada, Sir John Douglas Sutherland Campbell, the Marquess of Lorne. Canadian landscape painter Homer Watson was a member and president of the Academy...
in 1965. In the same year he represented Canada in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and won a Silver Medal at the Eighth Sao Paulo Biennial. In 1975 the Vancouver Art Gallery
Vancouver Art Gallery
The Vancouver Art Gallery is the fifth-largest art gallery in Canada and the largest in Western Canada. It is located at 750 Hornby Street in Vancouver, British Columbia...
organized a twentyfive-year retrospective of his work.
In 1978 he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
.
At the end of the 1960s Kiyooka had lost faith in modernism and stopped painting. He began to use performance, film and music. He also began to use photography. But in the early 1970s he also produced two series of sculptures, the StoneDGloves: Alms for Soft Palms, shown at the National Gallery
National gallery
The National Gallery is an art gallery on Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom.National Gallery may also refer to:*Armenia: National Gallery of Armenia, Yerevan*Australia:**National Gallery of Australia, Canberra...
in Ottawa and the 16 Cedar Laminated Sculpture series, shown alongside the Ottoman/Court Suite of silk-screen prints, at the Bau Xi Gallery in Vancouver in May, 1971.
His artwork is represented by the Catriona Jeffries Gallery
Catriona Jeffries Gallery
Catriona Jeffries Gallery is an art gallery in Vancouver that has been in operation since 1994. It focuses on the post conceptual art practices which have emerged from Vancouver and the critical relationships between these practices and particular international artists....
in Vancouver, Canada.
Books
- Kyoto Airs. Periwinkle Press, Vancouver 1964. (Inspired by a visit to Japan in 1963).
- Dorothy LivesayDorothy LivesayDorothy Kathleen May Livesay, was a Canadian poet who twice won the Governor General`s Award in the 1940s, and was "senior woman writer in Canada" during the 1970s and 1980s.-Life:...
: The Unquiet Bed. Illustrations by
Roy Kiyooka.
- Nevertheless These Eyes. Printed at the Coach House Press, Toronto 1967.
- StoneDGloves. Coach House Press, Toronto 1970. Repr.: 1983.
- transcanada letters. Talonbooks, Vancouver 1975. Repr.: 2004.
- The Fountainebleau Dream Machine: 18 Frames from A Book of Rhetorick. Coach House Press, Toronto 1977
- Pear Tree Pomes [!] 1987. Illus. by David Bolduc. Coach House Press, Toronto 1987. Nominated for the 1987 Gevernor General Award1987 Governor General's AwardsEach winner of the 1987 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit received $5000 and a medal from the Governor General of Canada. The winners and nominees were selected by a panel of judges administered by the Canada Council for the Arts.-Fiction:...
. - Daphne MarlattDaphne MarlattDaphne Marlatt, née Buckle, CM , is a Canadian poet who lives in Vancouver, British Columbia....
(ed.): Mothertalk: Life Stories of Mary Kiyoshi Kiyooka. NeWest Press, Edmonton 1997. Roy Kiyooka's interviews with his mother, Mary Kiyoshi Kiyooka. - Roy MikiRoy MikiRoy Akira Miki, CM, FRSC is a Canadian poet and scholar.Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba to second generation Japanese-Canadian parents, he attended the University of Manitoba, the University of British Columbia, and Simon Fraser University, where he is currently a professor emeritus. He lives in...
(ed.): Pacific Windows: Collected Poems of Roy K. Kiyoka. Talonbooks, Burnaby, B.C. 1997. - Smaro Kambourelli (ed.): Pacific Rim Letters. NeWest Press, Edmonton 2004.
- Roy Miki (ed.): Roy Kiyooka: The Artist & the Moose: A Fable of Forget. LINEbooks, Burnaby, B.C., 2009.
Literature
- Vancouver Art Gallery: Roy K. Kiyooka: 25 Years, 1975.
- Kent Lewis: Kiyooka, Roy Kenzie. In: William H. New (editor): The Encyclopedia of Literature in Kanada, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 2002, p. 582f..
- John O'BrianJohn O'BrianJohn O'Brian is a writer, curator, and art historian. He is best known for his books and articles on modern art history and criticism...
, Naomi Sawada, Scott Watson (ed.): All Amazed: For Roy Kiyooka. Arsenal Pulp Press, Vancouver, B.C., with Belkin Gallery, 2002.
External links
- Roy Kiyooka at The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan
- Roy Kenzie Kiyooka at The Canadian EncyclopediaThe Canadian EncyclopediaThe Canadian Encyclopedia is a source of information on Canada. It is available online, at no cost. The Canadian Encyclopedia is available in both English and French and includes some 14,000 articles in each language on a wide variety of subjects including history, popular culture, events, people,...
- Roy Kenzie Kiyooka at BC Bookworld
- All Amazed: For Roy Kiyooka