Description: This is an exceptional, visually striking, and Very RARE Vintage Hawiian Modern HAWAII Pink Palm TAHITI Woman Portrait Print on Cloth, exclusively created and sold by the legendary Tahiti Imports of Honolulu in 1987 (they are now permanently closed), in a very limited-edition collaboration with the renowned Hawaiian artist, Pegge Hopper (b. 1936.) This artwork is titled Pink Palm, and features a lounging young Hawaiian woman, surrounded by flat planes of color and abstracted organic, representational shapes. This artwork is printed on high-quality, 100% cotton cloth, with hand stitched accentuations, most apparent on the face of the subject, and in the surrounding tropical foliage. This is a very large and impressive piece, at approximately 36 5/8 x 49 5/8 inches (nearly 3 x 4 feet, including frame.) Actual visible artwork is approximately 28 x 41 inches. The actual artwork itself is approximately 30 x 44 inches. Very good condition for over a decade of age and storage, with moderate scuffing, scratches and edge wear to the original very expensive and heavy shadowbox wood frame. Additionally, there is some very light and barely noticeable soiling to the shadowbox matting in the lower left corner (please see photos carefully.) Tahiti Imports was a cultural landmark in Honolulu since the early 1970's, and collaborated with Hopper on a few occasions, several times in the 1970's, and most recently in 1987 with the production of Pink Palm, and a similar piece titled Green Palm. Neither of these large-scale textile prints have ever surfaced before on eBay or in the secondary market. They are incredibly scarce. PRICED TO SELL. Pegge Hopper's original artworks are in the permanent collections of the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and Arts, The Honolulu Advertiser and Contemporary Arts Center in Hawaii, American Hawaii Cruise Lines, the Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Art in Embassies Collection, U.S. Department of State, the Pacific Club, and two of her large-scale paintings are prominently featured in the Honolulu International Airport on the island of Oahu (see photo 22.) Acquired from an affluent estate collection in Los Angeles, California. Due to the large size and heavy weight of this piece, S&H costs will be unavoidably high. However, Free Local Pickup from Los Angeles County, California is also an option. If you like what you see, I encourage you to make an Offer. Please check out my other listings for more wonderful and unique artworks! About the Artist: Pegge Hopper Born: 1936 - Oakland, CaliforniaKnown for: Mural, female figure Pegge Hopper (Born 1936) is active/lives in Hawaii, California. Pegge Hopper is known for Mural, female figure. Born in Oakland, California, Pegge Hopper moved to Hawaii in 1963 and took a job as an art director with an advertising agency. In 1970, she began a series of paintings of Island women, and she has exhibited these paintings in one-person shows in Hawaii as well as Chicago, Los Angeles, and Seattle.She was born in Oakland, California, and studied at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Her first job was with Raymond Loewy Associates in New York, where she designed murals for department stores. This was followed by a year of travel through Europe. In Milan, Italy she worked for La Rinascente for two years designing posters and graphics.Her work is represented in many private and public collections including the permanent collections of the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, The Honolulu Advertiser and Contemporary Arts Center in Hawaii, American Hawaii Cruise Lines, the Bishop Museum, the Honolulu International Airport and the Pacific Club. Pegge Hopper was born in Oakland, California. She studied painting at the Los Angeles Art Center College of Design. In 1956, she worked in New York for Raymond Loewy Associates. Living in Milan, Italy from 1961-1963 she was an illustrator for la Rinascente department store. Pegge came to Honolulu in 1963 and was an art director for a local agency. After visiting the State Archives and seeing old photographs of native Hawaiians she was inspired to start painting again.She has had numerous one-person shows including The Contemporary Arts Center in Honolulu, Mauna Lani Bay Hotel, O'Grady Gallery in Chicago, Kimzey Miller Gallery in Seattle and at Parco in Japan. Her works are represented in many prominent and private collections such as the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, Honolulu Advertiser, the Pacific Club, the renowned Bishop Museum, and Honolulu International Airport. Pegge Hopper Honolulu has been home for Pegge Hopper since 1963. Originally from California, she was born in Oakland in 1935 and studied Painting at Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles (California). Living in Milan (Italy) from 1961-63, she was an illustrator for La Rinascente department store. The experience she gained in Europe has been a major influence in her work. Upon moving to Hawaiâi, Pegge worked as an art director for an advertising agency. After visiting the State Archives and seeing old photographs of Native Hawaiians, she was inspired to start painting again. The Pegge Hopper Gallery opened in 1983 and is located in Honoluluâs Historic Chinatown, where Peggeâs original paintings, drawings, ceramics, limited edition prints and posters are available. Her works are represented in many prominent private and public collections such as the Hawaiâi State Foundation on Culture and the Arts (Honolulu), Honolulu Advertiser, The Pacific Club and the renowned Bishop Museum. Storyboard: Pegge HopperDoing something differently vs. doing something wellI attended ArtCenter way back in the 1950s. My parents were concerned that I, a budding artist, was going to struggle at making a living. This was particularly true of my father, a staunch Republican capitalist and died-in-the-wool businessman who frequently referred to art as âfrosting on the economic cake.âMy senior year, I found myself deliberating between ArtCenter and Chouinard. I was leaning toward Chouinard, which seemed artier and more to my tastes. My mother implored me to consider ArtCenter, for the simple fact that the College was and is a place where creatives can transform their skill sets into a long-term career.Far away from my ArtCenter bubble, seismic changes were occurring within the art world. The Abstract Expressionists were revolutionizing New York City. Some decades later, the concept of modern art would be further commercialized as the likes of Andy Warhol rose to prominence. There was definitely an emphasis placed on doing things differently.At ArtCenter, it was never about doing things differently. It was about doing things well. My education was almost musical in that sense: I had to master the basics of my instrument, which was fine art, before I learned how to play jazz. Instructors like Lorser Feitelson and Harry Carmean helped me understand the basic beauty of line, and what it meant to really capture something in a drawing.I eventually became obsessed with drawing human forms. One of my major influences was Marimekko, the Finnish design icon whose purposefully flat design work and vivid fabrics concealed tremendous dimensions. Seeing Marimekko fabric designs in the 60s was my first âeurekaâ moment. Many of my early attempts at painting saw me trying to do my own version of Marimekko.I loved ArtCenter so much I ended up marrying into it! My ex-husband was Bruce Hopper, a fellow alum, and a brilliant designer in his own right. We lived in Milan in the early 60s, where I eventually landed a gig designing seasonal concept posters for the high-end Italian outlet, La Rinascente. After two years in Milan, we moved to Los Angeles with plans of starting a family. Neither of us particularly liked it there, even though Bruce was from Glendale. It was around that time, after six years of marriage, that we began charting a course for Hawaii, where I reside to this day.Neither one of us had stepped foot on Hawaiian soil before we made that decision.Before long, we had an apartment overlooking the ocean, with a view that stretched from Diamond Head all the way to the airport. Hawaii had only been a state for four years before we arrived, and it still felt tranquil and new then.It was around this time I started painting. Acrylic paint did not exist at ArtCenter, believe it or not, so it was a thrill to explore what, for me, was a new medium. I became familiar with the local art scene and ended up discovering a treasure trove of photos at the Honolulu State Archives that would alter the course of my career.They were photographs of women: women, sitting on mats, playing ukuleles, and never smiling for or even acknowledging the presence of a camera.These incredible photos went on to inspire some of the work Iâve become most well-known for. At no point did I look at these photographs and think to myself, âthis is my brand.â It was pure inspiration. It was my second âeurekaâ moment.I always thought of myself as a designer first and visual artist second. Iâm not an impressionist. I donât obsess over light, and shadow. I am a product of ArtCenter. I appreciate typeface as much as I do brushstrokes. Thatâs not to say I donât love the old masters. At the end of the day, thatâs just not me.From Picassoâs âGuernicaâ to the George Floyd murals that have recently sprung up across America, art has remained a vital reflection of social change. I do sometimes worry that weâve become oversaturated, and that the abundance of stimuli we consume every day eventually starts to cancel itself out.What I do is, in the grand scheme of things, is modest. My work is a reflection of my unwavering respect and admiration for Hawaii and its people. I want to be clear: when it comes to Hawaiian culture, I am a bystander, an observer. My only job is to help ensure the integrity of my chosen home.More than anything, I thank my lucky stars that Bruce said to me, all those years ago, âletâs go see what Hawaii is like.âPegge Hopper BFA 56 Fine Art Owner, Pegge Hopper Gallery, Honolulu Former Illustrator for La Rinascente Pegge HopperUnited States of America 1936 American artist Pegge Hopper is best known for her figurative paintings that capture the beauty of Hawaii. Bursting in colors, they offer a unique glimpse into the life of native Hawaiians on paradise island, where the artist has been living since 1963. Today her works can be found in several prominent private and public collections, including The Montage at Kapalua Bay on Maui, the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, the Bishop Museum, the American Hawaii Cruise Lines, the Pacific Club, Honolulu International Airport, and Honolulu Advertiser, to name a few.Learning The Basics Of ArtPegge Hopper was born in 1936 in Oakland, California. She grew up in a household where art was not seen as a sustainable career choice, yet Hopper stayed true to her passion. When the time came to cheese between two schools, Art Center and Chouinard, her parents advised her to choose the College as it would give her proper training to make a career out of her passion. Hopper graduated from the Los Angeles Art Center College of Design, where she studied painting with Lorser Feitelson and Harry Carmean. However, she was disappointed in her choice for a time, as she felt that the school gave no space for the artist to experiment. Everything had to be done in a certain way, while out there in the world, artists like Andy Warhol were breaking all conventional ways art was done. Later, she would understand that she was taught the basic techniques of fine art and that one had to learn how to fly before one could soar.Pegge Hopper's Flat DesignOne of the most significant influences in the artist's career was products by the Finnish company Marimekko. Their flat designs and colorful fabrics opened Hopper's eyes to new possibilities. Her first job was designing murals with Raymond Loewy Associates in New York. However, the road was calling her, and with her husband, Bruce Hopper, she traveled through Europe until they finally settled in Milan, where she worked for two years for the outlet La Rinascente, creating posters and graphics. Once the contract expired, they moved to Los Angeles but quickly realized it was not the right place for them. In 1963, when the island was a state for just four years, they moved to Hawaii. Pegge Hopper worked there as an art director with an advertising agency.Paintings of Hawaiian WomenThe artist began experimenting with acrylics, a completely new medium for her. Another huge turn in her artistic expression happened when she found photographs of native women at the Honolulu State Archives. The unique images featured women that never looked at the camera nor smiled. Hopper always considered herself "as a designer first and visual artist second. I'm not an impressionist. I don't obsess over light and shadow." The artist sees herself as just the observer of Hawaiian culture, whose "job is to help ensure the integrity of my chosen home."Pegge Hopper lives and works in Hawaii. Artist Pegge Hopper Selling Her Gallery, Starting AnewHawaiÊ»i Public Radio | By Noe TanigawaPublished August 13, 2019 Artist, designer Pegge Hopper has helped shape the worldâs view of Hawaiâi. Her most famous paintings feature cool, design centered compositions of women, mostly Hawaiian women, and large areas of flat color. At 84 years old, HPRâs Noe Tanigawa reports, Hopper is selling her gallery on Nuâuanu and starting a new life. New originals by Pegge Hopper, Yvonne Cheng, and Mayumi Oda continue on view at Cedar Street Galleries through September 8, 2019. Thereâs no substitute for hearing this conversation with Pegge Hopper. Her wit and vitality say it all. I recommend the extended version as well.Artist Pegge Hopper, owner of Pegge Hopper Gallery, was born in California and worked as a designer in New York and Milan before moving to Hawaiâi in 1963. While working as an art director for Jack Seigel in Honolulu, she was inspired by photographs of Hawaiian women she saw in King Kal?kauaâs photo collection at the state archives.Hopper says the women were âsitting on lauhala mats at Hanauma Bay, not smiling, looking so cool, right at the camera, not grinning, not posing, they were totally self-actualized. These were strong women, totally self-actualized, not trying to be beautiful, not trying to be skinny, not trying to look any way. Just there, in all their glory. I think that affected me a lot.âHopper went back to painting. In the decades since, Hopperâs women and her graphic treatment of the tropics have embodied a refined, and gracious Hawaiâi style. As for hard news, Hopper is putting her building at 1164 Nuâuanu Avenue up for sale. She has been selling well internationally online and her current gallery director, Melanie Yang, will develop and manage a web presence for her work. (Go Melanie!) Pegge Hopper Gallery supported many artists and causes over the years, most especially, Planned Parenthood. Hopper now looks forward to being in her studio when the muse arrives.Yvonne Cheng has returned to classic female figures for this show. Born in Surabaya, Indonesia, Cheng was tutored in art as a child and moved to Hawaiâi in 1967. The batiks she made in the 1970âs and early â80âs were welcomed in Honoluluâs established venues. They featured expanses of both women and âohe kapala printed kapa, usually in earth tones. Her work has expanded into collage, acrylic painting, and pastel drawings.Mayumi Oda lives and works in Kealakekua, Hawaiâi. Since 1969, sheâs had over 50 one woman shows around the world and is represented in prestigious collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY), and The Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, MA.) Oda participates in international efforts against nuclear proliferation, and runs a Zen Buddhist retreat where she lives. Oda maintains an active online presence, and has been called the âMatisse of Japan.â Hawaiâi Artist Reveals Her Artistic Inspiration And LegacyBy Elizabeth Harper | October 5, 2021 | People, Art,Prolific artist Pegge Hopper personifies the spirit and style of women in her spellbinding paintings.âI was very young when I realized drawing was what I really loved to do,â says Hawaiâi artist Pegge Hopper. Trained as a painter in her home state of California, she began a career in design in the â50sâfirst in New York, then Milan and finally Honolulu. But it was the late 1960s that reignited her passion for fine art, calling her once again to put her brushes to work.âIn 1968,â Hopper recalls, âI visited the state archives to study old photographs. I was intrigued by the faces of the Polynesian people. Their open and unselfconscious gazes stared at me from another era. And whether in their native clothing or stuffed into Victorian nipped-waist dresses, I was inspired to paint them.â Thus began her enduring journey to capture the character and style of her subjectsâthe innermost thoughts and emotions of Hopperâs painted women coming to life on her canvas. âI donât paint from my head,â she says. âI paint from my eyes, and their beauty has become etched in my mind.âRecently, Hopper has introduced new releases, including âMana Olana (Floating Thoughts),â part of her September Swim series; and âPareo,â with a portion of sales benefiting Womenâs Fund of Hawaiâi. âWhen I first started to paint Hawaiian women, I felt they had not yet been depicted in a contemporary style,â Hopper explains. âI used my drawing skills in a combination with graphic imagery to portray the fortitude and some of the sadness I had seen in the old photographs.â Her singular technique has garnered an ardent following of both local and international collectors. âIn my new work,â Hopper notes, âI have been experimenting with alternative materials and different imagery.âAs she considers her legacy, the 86-year-old looks to her enduring muse: Hawaiâi. âSince I have lived in Honolulu for more than 50 years, I feel like a kamaâÄina,â Hopper says. âI realize how fortunate I am and how much support this community has given meâboth as an artist and as a woman. I hope that through my art I have given something back.â Pegge Hopperâs signature style of calm and cool portraiture of Polynesian women have become a symbol of the female flaneur of the tropics. Text ByMATHEW DEKNEE There is a certain poise instilled in a Pegge Hopper canvas. The conventions of her paintings tend to cohere simply enough: a gentle swatch of muted hues; a bushel of flora; an island woman with a sangfroid gaze. These elements have fashioned a recondite recipe for a career of spellbinding works, all charged with a sense of blasĂ© calm. The artist, who at 83 years old continues to exhibit and sell her iconic portraits of Hawaiian women at her namesake gallery in Chinatown, has perfected it over the years. The postures of these painted ladiesâcurled, hunched, seated with legs crossed, sprawledâare now synonymous with her singular sensibility and success. Pegge Hopper is a mood.Hopper, who was born in Oakland in 1935, had a well-rounded, if at times glamorous, arts education. She came of age in post-war southern California; studied painting, illustration, and graphic design in Pasadena in 1953; and worked for advertising agencies in New York and San Francisco after graduating. She eventually found herself in Europe in 1960. It was in Milan, where she was illustrating posters for La Rinascente, an esteemed Italian department store, that her affair with incorporating figurative sketches of women with the flat graphic design in vogue with the ad industry began to take shape.Three years later, in 1963, Hopper, now with a newborn, moved from Los Angeles to Hawaiâi. The islands appealed to Hopperâs desire to raise a family away from the congested and urban living of Los Angeles. âEverything seemed so young and innocent, so new and fresh, so vibrant and lushly organic,â she wrote upon arriving. Years later, the same sentiments would serve as the introduction to her 2002 book, Women of Hawaiâi. In Honolulu, she was hired as an art director for an ad agency. She raised three daughters. She painted.Hopperâs subject matter is indebted to a visit to the Hawaii State Archives where she was looking through 19th-century photographs of Hawaiâiâs islanders. She was particularly taken by the faces of the wÄhineâ âtheir open and unself-conscious gazes,â as she described them, âstared at me from another era, and whether in their native clothing or stuffed in Victorian nipped-waist dressed, I was inspired to paint them.âThe art initially began as personal works. Free from the commercial agenda that had hemmed in most of her art pursuits till this point, Hopper happened into an opportunity. She would craft a singular artistic vision, and also interrupt the marketing and imagery of Hawaiian women popular in the late â60s and early â70s. Hopperâs new portraits were stripped of the conspicuous luxury mandated by her early work for designer stores, replaced instead by their own brand of casual glamourâthe kind of prosaic regal and romance one can adopt by fully reclining in the shade of an âawapuhi grove without another man in sight.The hallmarks of a Hopper portrait insist on this solitude. Somewhat unexpectedly, Hopperâs languorous subtlety and aversion to exploiting the female form attracted the interest of a fast-growing tourism industry with hotels clambering to refine their interior furnishings and design. Her first commissionâa significant delivery of 22 paintingsâwas for the 1969 renovation of the Kona Village on Hawaiâi Island. Soon after, more commissions of original pieces from island resorts, private companies, even the Honolulu airport, had followed, sprinkled with intermittent gallery exhibitions in between.The irony that tints Hopperâs work is how its style and subject matter have become instantly identifiable without really identifying anybody. The Pegge Hopper woman, who is almost always left nameless in the artworkâs title, creates an alluring gulf between the viewer and the frame. Each womanâs expression, heavy-lidded and indifferent, peering out from the broad-bladed folds of bromeliads, banana leaves, or a dangling heliconia, posture an inevitable query: What is on this womanâs mind? Itâs the enduring enigma of the artistâs dreamy-not-dreary sleight of hand that has kept her confounding new generations of fans. Hopper has previously expressed she has no interest in trying to understand much about the state of mind of the muses she paints. To presume anything about their interior lives she considers an invasion. And, while the expressions arenât explicitly welcoming, they do invite contemplation. Of it all, Hopper resolves, âShe can be thinking whatever you want her to be thinking.â The Mona Lisasâ of Hawaii â Pegge Hopperâs Wahine Wahine is the Hawaiian word for woman and if you've ever visited Hawaii, you've probably encountered the works of Pegge Hopper. Her art adorns the walls of our galleries and museums, the Honolulu airport, as well as various hotels and resorts in Hawaii. Much like Davinciâs Mona Lisa, the Polynesian women painted by Pegge Hopper have a seductive air of mystery about them.The Hawaiian Wahines depicted in Peggeâs paintings wear an expression that you canât quite put your finger on. Strong, confident, and powerfully sensuous, they almost appear to be concealing a secret of sorts. Interestingly enough, while most see Peggeâs wahines as empowered, unapologetically aloof, confident and even sexy, Pegge herself views them as androgynous. Perhaps what is most interesting about Pegge Hopper and the works responsible for her recognition as an artist, is that they very easily could have escaped creation altogether.Originally hailing from Oakland California, Pegge claims that art was the only thing she was good at and she knew early on that it was something she wanted to pursue. After attending the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, she and her portfolio made their way to NYC where she landed a job with Raymond Loewy creating interior artwork for department stores.Like many artists before her, Pegge had an adventurous spirit and in the 1960âs she and her husband crossed the pond to Europe. They travelled the continent in a Volkswagen van and eventually settled in Milan working for the high-end department store La Rinascente. Pegge created posters for the chain on a small scale that were then blown up to billboard size and could be found all over the country. Two years in to her gig with La Rinascente, Pegge and her husband returned to the US and eventually settled here in Hawaii where she began working with the ad agency Lennen Newell. It would appear that Pegge was well on her way to a long and successful career as an art directorâŠor maybe not.Making her own way in New York City and living abroad had fed Peggeâs independence and created a tenacious, strong, and motivated go-getter. It was this fierce desire to succeed that led her to push for advancement at the agency but rather than being promoted, she was fired. Though she couldnât have known it at the time, this was truly a blessing in disguise.Just prior to losing her job, Pegge had begun to experiment with a new medium. Acrylic paints had recently been invented, and Pegge was testing them out. She started painting the Hawaiian women sheâd seen in old photographs found in the archives. There was something about the large Polynesian women depicted in the photos that inspired the artist, and losing her job provided the time for Pegge to completely immerse herself in her rediscovered love of painting.She never once used a live model for any of her now famous Wahines. Each was created based on something sheâd seen in an old photograph, and many were often a combination of something sheâd seen in a photo with a minute detail or two found in the face of a woman sheâd encountered at the market or seen on the street. The details would blend together when her brush touched a canvas, each time creating a new and beautiful, serene yet indifferent looking Hawaiian island woman, all from the archives of Peggeâs own creativity. It was these paintings of Polynesian women that led to her first commissioned work and set the stage for the type of recognition that most artists can only dream of.Pegge Hopper is now in her late seventies and still creating. In Peggeâs own words, âan artist doesnât retireâ.Peggeâs works and occasionally those of other artists can be found on display at the Pegge Hopper Gallery in Honoluluâs Chinatown section at 1164 Nuuanu Avenue. Pegge Hopper And The âMythâ Of Native HawaiiansFamous for painting images of Hawaiian women reclining, the artistâs style and views raise questions about power and privilege.Natanya Friedheim, Staff Writer Aug 1, 2020 Her bare feet stretch out across a pastel pink bed. Plumeria flowers lie scattered beside her. One blossom adorns her ear. A light pink dress fits loosely over the Native Hawaiian woman depicted in Pegge Hopperâs painting âPua Melia,â one of the artistâs best-selling prints.If people in Hawaiâi donât recognize Pegge Hopper by name, they likely recognize her work: flat planes of pastel colors, accents of tropical flora and, featured most prominently, a lounging Hawaiian woman. For decades her paintings have decorated homes, offices and hotels across the state.In an island community with a fledgeling art scene, Hopper has done well for herself. She drew from her background in advertising to produce work that appealed to buyers without succumbing to kitschiness.âIâm not 100% selling my soul to making money and Iâm not 100% selling my soul starving to death,â she said in an interview. âIâm trying to walk that middle line.âAfter 37 years in business, Hopper sold her gallery in Honoluluâs Chinatown this month. Maile Meyer and Wei Fang, both members of art nonprofit Interisland Terminal, bought the building. The organization plans to use the space as a gallery to showcase the work of local artists. Their first show, scheduled in September, will be dedicated to Hopperâs work.Over the course of her career, Hopperâs paintings have graced gallery walls from Chicago to Japan, making the artist a recognized creator of images of Polynesian women. Two massive paintings of hers hang in the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, the island chainâs main airport. In an article published last year, Hawaiâi Public Radio arts and culture reporter Noe Tanigawa described Hopper as having âhelped shape the worldâs view of Hawaiâi.âHopperâs palette and planes of color match upholstery, making the paintings ideal for interior decoration according to Gaye Chan, a professor of art at the University of Hawaiâi at MÄnoa. The lounging woman âsignifies the good life,â Chan said. But this symbolism disturbs Chan and other onlookers who see Hopperâs work as part of an artistic legacy that has commodified people indigenous to the Pacific islands while masking dispossession and continuing racial inequality. Critics argue that the popular images fail to raise any immediate questions for the average viewer: This is the good life, for those who can afford it. âThereâs just such a long history of representations of Native Hawaiian women as just lounging, only remarkable because of their beauty,â said Maile Arvin, an assistant professor of gender studies and history at the University of Utah. Arvin grew up with Hopperâs prints around her familyâs home. âWe deserve more,â she said, referring to Native Hawaiian women. âBetter and more complex representations.âA pragmatist, Hopper sees her art as a source of income. To her the figures, which she paints without using models, are decorative and apolitical. âI am not painting Hawaiians, I am painting a myth,â she said. âIt has nothing to do with Hawaiians. I am merely using them as a beautiful thing just like an orchid.â As the United States reckons with its many iterations of racism, representations of people of color have come into question. In April, Land OâLakes removed the image of a Native American woman from its logo. Two months later, Quaker Oats retired the Aunt Jemima name and packaging from the companyâs pancake-mix and syrup.These changes do not seem to have compelled companies using images of Hawaiian women âthe ubiquitous grass skirt hula dancer, for exampleâ to question their advertising tactics. Where does that leave an iconic island painter whose work straddles the line between interior design and art?The Commercial Artist and The âDusky MaidenâA self-described âcommercial artist,â Hopper worked in advertising for high-end department stores in New York City and Milan before moving to Hawaiâi in 1963. Let go from her advertising job in Honolulu, she started painting Hawaiian women and before long was commissioned by Mary Philpotts McGrath of Philpotts Interior to do a series of such paintings for the Kona Village Resort. When gallery owners invite Hopper to do a show, Hopper says they want work that will sell. In her case, that has meant painting lounging Hawaiian women. âArt is not a benevolent endeavor,â she said. âItâs not a nonprofit.âSupplying this market demand enabled her to raise three children in Hawaiâi, purchase her own gallery in Honolulu and a second home in Mexico. She has reached a level of success many artists dream of. âThis is part of a larger issue of whose art is paid attention to and who is able to make a viable living through producing art and images,â said Laurel Mei-Singh, an assistant professor of ethnic studies at U.H. Manoa.A Hopper original can cost as much as $28,000 or $3,000 for a serigraph. Her gallery also sells prints in the $30 to $250 range.Over the course of her more than five-decade career, Hopper has diversified her repertoire beyond lounging women. One of her collections features a Hawaiian woman flying through the canvas on a motorcycle, her muâumuâu billowing behind her. In another series, women in various poses represent the five elements in Chinese philosophy. But buyers are more interested in her signature work: brown skin women in repose, contemplative and serene. The popularity of images of Pacific Islander women lounging, an archetype scholars call âthe dusky maiden,â is rooted in a past some trace as far back as initial European contact. Arvin of the University of Utah points to William Hodges, an artist who sailed alongside Captain James Cook and other European voyagers to the Pacific. Hodgesâ paintings of Tahiti conjure a Garden of Eden with women styled as Grecian bathers.The images, coupled with prevailing pseudo-scientific theories on race, were used to defend imperial ambition.âThe islands were so idyllic that they needed a European male presence to come protect them,â Arvin said.At the turn of the 20th century, when the U.S. annexed Hawaiâi, businessmen began investing in tourism in an effort to diversify the islandsâ economy away from cash crop agriculture.They used images of Hawaiian women as hula dancers, lei makers and bathers who are âsexually available to visitors,â to allure people to the islands, according to Jaimey Hamilton Faris, an associate professor of art history and critical theory at U.H. Manoa. An artistic tradition developed in tandem with the ad campaigns. It included the work of John Kelly and Madge Tennent, and more recently Kim Taylor Reece and Diana Hansen-Young, all foreigners who moved to Hawaiâi and became famous for painting the islandsâ indigenous people. Hopperâs work stands out to local artist Meleanna Meyer for its sensitivity and refinement. The women Hopper paints are clothed and not performing for the viewer. Meleanna is the sister of Maile Meyer, the new owner of Hopperâs building.âPegge is able to succeed in that without being trite or banal,â said Meleanna Meyer, who is also a friend of Hopper.Hopper rejects the notion that sheâs part of any kind of artistic legacy and asks that we not read too much into her work. Indeed, the lay viewer likely does not consider such nuances.âThatâs the power of representation. How deep it goes, how unquestioning people are,â said Hamilton Faris. âThe imagery seems innocent on the surface but it really is embedded with these ideas of colonization, primitivism and the patriarchy.â Race, Power And Privilege Hopperâs work is celebrated in Hawaiâi for countering the stereotypical hula dancer imagery cluttering stores in Waikiki. The California-born designer drew inspiration for her work from the King KalÄkaua Photograph Exhibition at the Hawaiâi State Archives. The photos, taken in the 1800âs, showed Hawaiian women sitting, their expressions pensive and unsmiling. âThis woman that I paint is androgenous,â Hopper said. âShe is, to me, tough. Sheâs not skinny. She owns herself.â For Maile Meyer, the artist behind the paintings is herself a contemporary feminist. Meyer noted The Pegge Hopper Galleryâs contributions to Planned Parenthood of Hawaiâi. Local nonprofits Domestic Violence Action Center and People Attentive To Children, or PATCH, have also used Hopperâs work to fundraise.Maile Meyer founded Na Mea Hawaiâi, a store specializing in locally made art, products and books by local authors.âThis woman that I paint is androgenous. She is, to me, tough. Sheâs not skinny. She owns herself.â - Pegge HopperEven though the women in Hopperâs popular paintings are passive, many feel a sense of empowerment in viewing the work. Others say the repetition of this imagery plays into a stereotype that associates womenâs power with nature and fertility. According to Mei-Singh, the U.H. Manoa ethnic studies assistant professor, paintings like Hopperâs mask darker realities plaguing Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities in Hawaiâi, ranging from higher rates of homelessness to the environmental damage caused by military drills locally and onislands across the Pacific. Depending on the viewer, Mei-Singh said, the images naturalize existing social and economic hierarchies. Hopper knows Native Hawaiians donât live in the fantasy world she depicts. In fact, the artistâs views of indigenous women contrast with the idealized images she creates. Asked in an interview if she felt responsibility toward the Native Hawaiian community, Hopper described the importance of personal responsibility and offered a pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstrap approach to attaining financial security.âI know nothing about the Native Hawaiian community,â she added. âI respect and appreciate their problems but I do nothing to inhibit or help them in any way.âRepresenting HawaiâiWhen KaÊ»iminaÊ»auao Cambern looked up at Hopperâs prints in his house growing up, the images of women gazing down confused him. Why did they look so docile when the women in his life were so active? he wondered.âPerhaps if you capture them or you make them docile-looking theyâre not as threatening to you,â Cambern said. âAs if theyâre not out there fighting to stop the bombing.âToday, when Cambern looks at Hopperâs painting entitled âPola,â with its upside down banana flower hovering above a woman with a tribal-looking tattoo, he is disturbed. âThe maiâa is a phallic symbol,â said Cambern, a political science doctoral candidate at U.H. Manoa who has studied Hopperâs work. Maiâa means banana in Hawaiian. In ancient Hawaiâi. women were forbidden from eating certain varieties of bananas. âPerhaps if you capture them or you make them docile-looking theyâre not as threatening to you.â -Kaâiminaâauao Cambern Cambern is similarly ambivalent when he looks at the work of Margaret Rice. Like Hopper, Riceâs work often depicts a Hawaiian woman lounging. One image entitled âTĆ«tĆ« Peleâ shows a nude woman stringing flowers on a lei. The lei is draped across her naked body, partially covering her buttocks. âIt brings up great anger to see Pele, the goddess Pele, Pelehonuamea, being depicted as a millennial influencer,â Cambern said. He added, though, that Rice donates some of her profits to conservation efforts and publicly announced her opposition to the Thirty Meter Telescope, a construction project met with resistance from many Native Hawaiians. Rice could not be reached for comment. In June, the magazine Modern Luxury Hawaiâi featured Rice as one of four âHawaiÊ»i millennials who are making a difference.â Hawaiâi News Now published a feature on Rice, celebrating her depictions of âstrong, fierce, beautiful women.â Many artists in Hawaiâi work to disrupt simplistic representations of the islands and its people. Bernice Akamine, an artist whose work explores military presence in Hawaiâi, collects bullet casings and dirt from live-fire training sites, stretches of land used as training grounds by the U.S. military as soldiers prepare for war. A glass artist, Akamine recreates the bullets out of glass filled with the dirt she collected.Last year, the Honolulu Museum of Art featured a series of portraits of people who are Native Hawaiian by artist Kapulani Landgraf. Superimposed on their faces were the words: âWE ARE NOT AMERICAN HE HAWAIâI AU MAU AU MAU.â The Hawaiian phrase translates to âI am Hawaiian now and forever.â San Francisco-based photographer Adrienne Pao uses art to explore her Native Hawaiian ancestry and present the island chain as a place full of contradictions. In her photograph âLei Stand Protest,â Paoâs body lies, nude and corpse-like, on the concrete floor at the airport lei stand in Honolulu, a place familiar to locals. For Pao, Hawaiâi is both a tropical paradise and a concrete jungle. Lei making can be a time-honored tradition, as it is for her family, or something overseas factories pump out for tourists. Likewise, some viewers see violence in Hopperâs work while others find empowerment. âAll these things can exist at one time,â Pao said.
Price: 3500 USD
Location: Orange, California
End Time: 2025-01-12T04:16:37.000Z
Shipping Cost: 100 USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
All returns accepted: ReturnsNotAccepted
Artist: Pegge Hopper
Image Orientation: Landscape
Size: Large
Signed: No
Period: Contemporary (1970 - 2020)
Title: "Pink Palm"
Material: Cloth
Original/Licensed Reprint: Original
Region of Origin: Hawaii, USA
Framing: Matted & Framed
Subject: Botanical, Family, Famous Paintings/Painters, Figures, Flowers, Ladies, Landscape, Plants, Silhouettes, States & Counties, Tourism, Women, Hawaii, Polynesia
Type: Print
Year of Production: 1987
Item Height: 36 5/8 in
Style: Americana, Modernism
Theme: Americana, Art, Community Life, Continents & Countries, Cultures & Ethnicities, Domestic & Family Life, Events & Festivals, Exhibitions, Famous Places, Fashion, History, Nature, People, Portrait, Social History, Travel & Transportation
Features: 1st Edition, Limited Edition, One of a Kind (OOAK)
Production Technique: Screen Printing
Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
Item Width: 49 5/8 in
Handmade: Yes
Time Period Produced: 1980-1989
