Minidoka Series #2: Exodus

1978

American, born 1939

Roger Shimomura’s approach of representing difficult subject matter with what has now become his signature style of bold colors, graphic lines, and a Pop Art sensibility began around the time that he painted Exodus, the work on view here. Shimomura is a vivid storyteller, weaving personal experience into narrative works that in turn relate to a broader history of human experience. Exodus is one of a series of six paintings about the Minidoka internment camp in Idaho, where the artist was detained as a child. In this painting, Shimomura shows several Japanese-Americans on route to the internment camps after receiving notice of evacuation. The artist has said: “[objects] serve as a constant reminder of who I once was and from where I have escaped.”

Acrylic on canvas

60 x 72 in. (152.4 x 182.9 cm)

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Ofell H. Johnson

79.5

Provenance: The artist; [Kiku Gallery, Seattle, Washington]; purchased with funds from Mr. and Mrs. Ofell Johnson

Now on view at the Seattle Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Kiku Gallery, Roger Shimomura, Apr. 24 - May 17, 1979.

Bellingham, Washington, Whatcom Museum of History and Art, Roger Shimomura, May 28 - July 20, 1986 (Marylhurst, Oregon, Marylhurst College, Aug. 2 - Sept. 27, 1986; Eugene, Oregon, University of Oregon Museum of Art, Oct. 5 - Oct. 31, 1986).

Pullman, Washington, Museum of Art, Washington State University, Where Two Worlds Meet: Masami Teroka, Roger Shimomura, Jan.19 - Feb. 24, 1989.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Views and Visions In The Pacific Northwest, June 7 - Sept. 2, 1990.

Lawrence, Kansas, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Roger Shimomura: Delayed Reaction, Jan. 13 - Mar. 10, 1996 (Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Weatherspoon Art Gallery, University of North Carolina, May 9 - July 28, 1996; Bellingham, Washington, Western Washington University Art Gallery, Sept. 30 - Dec. 7, 1996; New Orleans, Louisiana, Newcomb Art Gallery, Tulane University, Jan. 25 - Mar. 15, 1997).

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Contemporary Art: Made in Seattle - A Northwest Summer, May 4 - July 23, 2006.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, American Art: The Stories We Carry, Oct. 20, 2022 - ongoing.

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

Learn more about Equity at SAM