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Portrait of an Artist Work of the late William Tokeshi to be shown at Imperial Valley Pioneers Museum.
A special exhibition of modern, non-representational artwork created by Imperial Valley-Nisei William Tokeshi who passed away earlier this year will open on Sunday, Oct. 28, and run for three weeks at the Pioneers’ Museum in Imperial. “I am very excited about the exhibition. It is not going to be a run-of-the-mill art show,” said Tim Asamen, coordinator of the Japanese American Gallery in the Pioneers’ Museum, who is organizing the art exhibition with members of the Tokeshi family. “Visitors will discover that there is much more to Imperial Valley’s Nikkei experience than just truck farming, and that’s important.” William “Bill” Tokeshi was born in Brawley in 1925. His parents, Dosho and Maka Tokeshi, emigrated from Okinawa Prefecture and settled in the Imperial Valley in 1914. They were longtime farmers in the areas around Brawley and Westmorland. In Westmorland, Bill was initially placed in the racially segregated Harding School. According to the Tokeshi family, the stigma of attending a segregated school left an emotional blot on Bill that disturbed him for much of his early life. When his family moved to a ranch west of town he matriculated at Trifolium School, a country school with only two rooms for the eight elementary grades. Bill completed his freshman year at Brawley Union High School before he and his family moved to West Covina in 1940. During World War II the Tokeshi family was incarcerated for a few months in the Pomona Assembly Center at the Los Angeles County fairgrounds and then transferred to the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming. After two years in the concentration camp, the family resettled in Chicago. Tokeshi left home and was on his own from the age of 15. He was 25 years old when he received his high school diploma. As his younger brother Joe put it, Bill was independent and always “marched to his own drummer.” In Chicago, he attended the Illinois Institute of Technology studying Prefabricated Design. He also took some courses at Chicago’s Art Institute. He apprenticed under Buckminster Fuller who invented the concept of geodesic domes and inspired the Spaceship Earth at Disney World’s Epcot Center in Florida. Later Bill worked for Fuller in North Carolina working on geodesic domes. He also designed domes for Kaiser Aluminum in Chicago. Tokeshi moved to New York City in 1962, which he grew to love because of its cosmopolitan atmosphere and large, vibrant artists’ colony. Until his retirement, he worked as a draftsman for a small architectural firm, but throughout his life art was his passion. Joe feels that his brother’s art is a study into himself as well as a study into the meaning of art. When working on his creations, Bill would ask himself, “What is of utmost concern and what isn’t?” “What is essential and what isn’t?” He admired the artists and architects of the Bauhaus school, particularly Swiss painter Paul Klee and German designer Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. He also respected innovators such as Picasso and Henri Matisse, the leading figure of the fauvist movement. But Bill set out on a quest of his own to define the meaning of art in its simplest form. He concluded that art in its purest form was the dot. The dot intrigued him and he experimented with it with a variety of media. “Although Uncle Bill seldom used colored dots in his drawings and paintings, the relationship of each dot is carefully executed similar to the Neoimpressionists, but unlike Pointillism he avoided patterns and images, leaving the viewer to explore images of his own creation,” explained nephew Gary Mouri. “Bill sometimes explored other means of expression, but it seems that he often returned to his ‘Dot’ theory. In his metal sculptures, the dots evolve into negative space.” Another of Bill’s nephews, Richard Tokeshi, wrote of the sculptures: “His sculptures have to be seen to be appreciated, a photo can’t do justice. Uncle Bill’s pieces need to be experienced from more than one view, because in his pieces, the space between the masses is as important as the masses themselves. Empty space is even the focal point for a few of the pieces, and in one, if looked at from a certain position the empty space forms a perfect circle. This is Uncle Bill winking at the viewer, which brings me to another point about his art: There is a playfulness in much of it.” In contrast to his metal sculptures, “Bill’s wooden structures take on a whole new meaning,” remarked Gary, who restored much of the artwork after it was shipped from New York City to California. The affects of light on his pieces and even the shadows that are cast are integral parts of his artwork. “One could not help but admire Uncle Bill’s hard work, his attention to detail, and his will and unrelenting drive toward perfection.” Richard also put Bill’s experience in historical context, “his art has its foundation in the ‘50s, when the concept of the ‘atom’ arose in public consciousness and was being explored.” And there were other sources of inspiration. The Tokeshi family was active in the Brawley Japanese Methodist Episcopal Church and other Christian churches outside of the Imperial Valley, but Bill—ever the nonconformist—was intrigued by Buddhism. Richard concurred, “Many of Uncle Bill’s pieces are very Buddhist-like, capturing Buddhist concepts.” Oneness and Enlightenment are themes found in his art. Tokeshi was the recipient of an award in painting from the Chicago Art The William Tokeshi Art Exhibition will be open to the public from October |
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