Taro Yamamoto

Taro Yamamoto (1919-1994)

An American-Japanese non-objective painter, he was born in Hollywood, California on October 29, 1919, to a wealthy Japanese landlord and builder. At the age of six he was taken to live in Japan, where he remained until age 19.  According to the painter himself, he started painting at the age of six, and won many prizes in exhibitions at his Japanese schools. At the age of 10 he was already painting landscapes and still lives in oil.

From November 7, 1941 to February 23, 1946 he served in the U. S. Army.  In 1949, while he was attending Santa Monica City College, he was awarded the Grand Prize for a painting which was later presented to the Methodist Church in West Los Angeles.

From 1950 to 1951 he studied under Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Morris Kanter and Byron Browne at the Art Students' League in New York.  The following year he studied under Vaclav Vytlacil there.  In 1951, 1952 and 1953 he studied under a scholarship at the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts in New York.
   
In 1952 he won the John Sloan Memorial Fellowship at the Art Students' League in New York and in 1953, the Edward