Chiura Obata’s gigantic, awe-inspiring painting Setting Sun of Sacramento Valley is a visual ode to nature’s grandeur, as seen through the lens of a Japanese American artist.

Arguably one of the most impressive phenomena of nature, sunsets have been a fascination for artists throughout the centuries. In myriad shapes and colors, they have found their way into some of the most iconic paintings to date and are much more than just a beautiful (if not kitsch) backdrop for an artwork’s scenery. One need look no further than the masterpieces of Claude Monet, J.M.W. Turner,  and even Edvard Munch to see the artist’s inner world - from romance and melancholy, to anguish and sheer madness - in the guise of a beautiful sunset.

So, what is special about Obata’s version of nature’s end-of-the-day-spectacle? The charm of it i that it depicts exactly that – no fancy landscape, no people, only the raw beauty and all-encompassing experience of – you guessed it - a sunset. Rightly, Obata described his work as “a forest of fire in the sky, with its devilish flames roaring across the heavens”- or rather, shooting up a huge 2-meter-long silk scroll. With its majestic size and bold style, Setting Sun of Sacramento Valley pays tribute to the powerful forces of nature, which are skin to the driving forces that shaped the tumultuous and unconventional life of the rebellious minded artist.

Even though many artists are known to have adventurous lives, Obata’s life journey seems like a sensationalized script from a Hollywood movie. First, there is his adoption by older artist brother Rokuichi and his training in traditional Japanese painting as a child, to his running away from home in an escape from military service at the mere age of 14, followed by the pursuit of his artistic career in Tokyo and his move to the United States, where he settled in San Francisco on his own and at only 17. He convinced his father to let him leave by stating,“The greater the view, the greater the art; the wider the travel, the broader the knowledge."

What was supposed to be a pit stop on his way to study art in the artistic hotspot of Paris, became not only his inspiration for many paintings to come, but, thanks to his love for California’s “Great Nature”, his home of choice. Yet, the challenges of the time surely tested Obata’s spirit. Made homeless by the 1906 earthquake, he found himself living in a refugee camp for several months – while stoically continuing to create art. In his daily life he was met with the era’s common anti-Japanese prejudices, which did not prevent him from becoming an influential art professor at UC Berkeley. During World War II, he and his family, together with 120,000 Japanese Americans, were forced into internment camps where, within only one month, Obata founded art schools that made the therapeutic power of painting accessible to hundreds of prisoners. If there was anyone who knew how to turn adversity into opportunity, and even more so into art, it was Obata.

Maybe it was his Samurai ancestry that endowed him with his resilience. Almost certainly it was the solace and spiritual enlightenment that he found in the beauty of nature, immortalized in his many paintings. And these are no less eclectic than Obata’s life, combining Western influences with traditional Japanese ink painting. Looking closely at Setting Sun of Sacramento Valley, you might even find that, quite literally, ‘every cloud has a golden lining’, since Obata gilded the wild cloudscape with gold pigments, giving another hint to his Japanese roots.

With its powerful, yet serene and ephemeral scenery, Setting Sun of Sacramento Valley is the epitome of the Zen philosophy that underlies Obata’s work and life, hinting at the insignificance of human existence in the face of nature’s grandeur. As Obata put it, “My paintings, created by the humble brush of a mediocre man, are nothing but expressions of my wholehearted praise and gratitude”.