Chuzo Tamotzu

Chuzo Tamotzu was a self-taught painter who lived in New York City before settling in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1948.

Tamotzu was born in Kagoshima, Japan in 1888. At Senshu University in Tokyo he was educated was in political science. Self-taught in sumi-e, he left Japan in 1914 to further his study of art throughout Asia and Europe. Tamotzu moved to the U.S. in 1920 where befriended several other artists, such as Philip Evergood, Yasuo Kuniyoshi and John Sloan. Tamotzu served on the board of the Society of Independent Artists when Sloan became the society's president. During the Great Depression, Tamotzu worked for the Public Works of Art Project in New York, but was denied participation in the Works Progress Administration because he was not an American citizen.^[1]

Tamotzu served in the American military during World War II, and eventually became an American citizen.^[2] In 1947 Tamotzu became a founding member of the New York Artists' Equity Association.

In 1974 Tamotzu converted the studio he had been renting in Sante Fe from John Sloan into his own gallery.^[3]

Tamotzu's art is held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and New Mexico Museum of Art.^[4]

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