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Akaji, Bumpei [1921-2002. USA. Painter/Sculptor]
Akaji, Bumpei [1921-2002. USA. Painter/Sculptor]
Bumpei Akaji was born in Lawai on the Hawaiian island of Kauai in 1921. During World War Two he served in the U.S. Army during which time he was stationed in Italy where he was inspired by the art he saw in Florence and elsewhere. Following the war he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship enabling him to study at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence and the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan. He returned to Hawaii in 1950 and continued his studies at the University of Hawaii - Manoa, from where he graduated with a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1951. He subsequently worked as a painter and sculptor in Hawaii. He was particularly known for his brazed and welded sculptures in copper and brass. Photographs of ‘Volcano II’, an oil on canvas, ‘Daikoku’ and ‘Machi’ copper and puddled brass brazed sculptures, and ‘Machi’, a construction in marble and glass tesserae by Akaji are illustrated in ‘Design Quarterly’ no.50, 1960 (p.12, 44, 49). Between the 1960s and 1990s Akaji worked on a number of sculptural commissions for public buildings in Hawaii including for President William McKinley High School in Honolulu (1963); Bishop Trust Company in Honolulu (1969); the State Office Building in Wailuku (1970); Ala Moana Center in Honolulu (1966); Ewa Beach Community School in Honolulu (1972), Molokai Public Library in Kaunakai (1973); Koloa Public School & Library in Koloa (1973); Hawaii State Capitol Mall in Honolulu (1974); Leilehua High School in Honolulu (1976); Pope Elementary School in Honolulu (1977); Maui Memorial Hospital in Wailuku (1981); Kauai High School in Lihue (1989); and Fort DeRusey in Honolulu (1996). Akaji died in 2002.
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