Paul Horiuchi papers, 1920-2017

Paul Horiuchi (1906-1999), called the “Master of Collage,” was born Chikamasa Horiuchi on April 12, 1906 in Oishi, in the Yamanashi Prefecture of Japan. He moved to the United States in 1920 at the age of 15 and started working for the Pacific Railroad in Kanda, Wyoming alongside his father and older brother, Toshimasa. Following his father’s death, he remained in Wyoming and studied English, rode a motorcycle, and painted landscapes in his free time. During a work break he etched “People of the world, watch my future” along with an image of reclining nymphs into a rock face along the Wyoming railroad line.

Horiuchi converted to Catholicism to marry Bernadette Suda in 1935, and took the name Paul at his baptism, inspired by Paul Cezanne and Pablo Picasso. The newlyweds moved to Wyoming and had two children before the outbreak of World War II. Because the Horiuchis lived far from the coast they were not sent to an internment camp, but still struggled to find work and housing during the war. During this time Paul burned most of his paintings and Japanese books, and any paintings he kept in storage were destroyed in a basement flood.

The Horiuchi family moved to Seattle in 1946 where Paul opened Horiuchi’s Body and Fender Shop at 12th Avenue and Fir Street. He also continued to paint and his submit his work, where it won prizes at the Western Washington Fair, Seattle Art Museum Northwest Annual Exhibition, and Exhibition of Northwest Watercolor Society.

A work injury in 1950 led Horiuchi on the path to being a full-time artist. Out of work with three children and a wife to feed, a family friend convinced him to sell four of his watercolor paintings. Following this success, he opened an antiques shop called Tozai Art on East Pike Street and set up a studio space in the back to continue painting. In 1954 he shifted to working in the medium for which he is now known: collage. He had his first gallery exhibition in 1957 at the Zoe Dusanne Gallery with John Matsudaira, Kenjiro Nomura, and George Tsutakawa.

Horiuchi continued to show his work at the Gordon Woodside/John Braseth Gallery, Nordness Gallery, Landau Gallery and later had retrospective exhibitions at the Seattle Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum, University of Oregon Museum of Art, and Museum of Northwest Art, among others. He formed friendships with fellow artist Mark Tobey and bonsai enthusiast Fujitaro Kubota. In 1962 he was commissioned to create a mosaic mural for the Seattle World’s Fair, located at the Seattle Center.

Horiuchi was awarded honorary degrees from the University of Puget Sound and Seattle University, and July 13, 1987 was designated “Paul Horiuchi Day” by the City of Seattle. He died in 1999. In 2004 a Central District park was renamed “Horiuchi Park” in his honor.

(Source: Paul Horiuchi at HistoryLink )