The Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA) at the University of Utah is one of 19 art museums from around the world to be awarded a 2022 Bank of America Art Conservation Project grant.
The grant will be used for the conservation treatment of “Two Running Horses” (1932), a four-panel screen by Chiura Obata (1885-1975), considered one of the most prominent Japanese-American artists of the 20th century. “Two Running Horses,” one of 38 Obata works the UMFA acquired in 2021, is the largest format of this subject the artist ever produced. Weaving Eastern traditions into a more contemporary and Western subject matter, the screen demonstrates the synthesis of Japanese and American art techniques and the artist’s mastery of sumi painting. Once properly conserved, “Two Running Horses” will be a centerpiece of the UMFA’s Obata collection and will be presented to the public in the museum’s American art gallery.