Lot 164: ROBERT CROWDER (1911-2010) HP CUSTOM SCREEN

Robert Crowder (1911-2010) Beverly Hills, California, True Mid 20th Century Byobu Folding Floor Screen. Custom Made for the client in 1953. "Weeping Willows and Herons". Hand Painted with ink and colors on paper signed upper right ''Robert Crowder'' overlaid on Japanese characters, a hand-painted four-panel byobu folding floor screen. Wood Frame covered with masonite with black lacquered molding. Each Panel 19"x59 1/2"x1". 80" wide opened all the way. Robert Crowder, 96, was an American-born Nihonga painter, who took the artist name of Shoji Kuroda after having studied under the master Mochizuki Shunko (1893-1979) in pre-war Japan. More than half-a century later, the delicate beauty of Shunko’s art took seed and flowered in the form of Crowder’s magnificent byobu, painted folding screens. Crowder visited Japan in 1934 for his first time en route to Korea for teaching at a missionary school. He lived in Japan to teach English and learned Nihonga from 1936 to 1943. At the break of the US-Japan war, he was an English faculty at the Fifth Higher School in Kumamoto or Daigo Koto Gakko (now Kumamoto University) and arrested as an enemy alien. After his deportation from Japan in 1943 during the WWII, he never returned to Japan. Crowder was a very successful Nihonga artist in 1950s,1960s and 70s, and he had created his own Japan apart at his Beverly Hills residence. PROVENANCE: A Private Charleston SC Estate. ***Pickup only or Shipping on furniture offered through Outward Bound 413-854-3676, TSI (866) 794-0908, Pak Mail 843-849-0310 - info@charlestonshipping.com. The UPS store 843-202-0141, or locally AJ Williams & Sons 843-442-0462. Please contact them or your own choice of shipper directly.***

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