As their lives rose, they practiced the art of patience

He supported himself as a painter in New York City. Finally he devoted himself entirely to his art; his painting style became playful, almost childlike, incorporating figures, bright colors and rounded shapes, as in “Boy, Rooster, Cat” (1964) and “Boy, Goat, Fruit” (before 1972 ). His first solo exhibition was at the Oakland Museum in 1972.

Because Hibi and his family couldn’t find work outside the West Bank — a government-imposed condition for the release of prisoners — they were among the last to leave Topaz. They also moved to New York, where Hibi supported her family as a seamstress, while continuing to paint. Both husband and wife were diagnosed with cancer shortly after their release; he died in 1947, and she was left to raise her children.

She eventually returned to San Francisco in 1954, working in a clothing company and then as a housekeeper for socialite artists. The mood of his paintings seemed to rise in the California sun. Works such as “Poems by Madame Takeko Kujo” — made in 1970, the year she had her first solo exhibition — are done in a light, poetic, almost completely abstract style that incorporates delicate calligraphy.

The existence of this exhibition is a bit of a surprise, as most of these painters’ works are hard to find before 1942 — Hibi and her husband entrusted their work to friends when they had to leave their home. , and that’s the end. lost; most of Hayakawa’s have disappeared into unrecorded private collections. But what the treasurer, ShiPu Wang, managed to muster was a statement, especially an important reminder, as the incoming presidential administration talks about mass deportations of immigrants and the end of birthright citizenship, at an earlier time in the history of this country. — and of the artists who recorded it, and survived.

Property photo: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi and Miné Okubo

Until August 17th. Smithsonian American Art Museum, 8th and G Streets, NW, Washington, DC; 202-633-7970; americanart.si.edu.