A dutiful son of Japanese immigrants, Isami Doi tried to be a doctor, then a lawyer, then a teacher, but the artist within him would have none of that. And so he followed a muse that would lead him to international acclaim and a position at the vanguard of a groundbreaking Asian-American art movement.
Doi was born in 1903 in 'Ewa and spent his early years on Kaua'i. He attended the University of Hawai'i for two years before entering Columbia University, where he was to study science in preparation for medical school. He abandoned that plan after a year and dabbled in legal training before enrolling in the Teachers College of Columbia. It was there that he met German artist Isaac Webber, who encouraged him to pursue his artistic interests.
Under the tutelage of Albert Heckman and Winold Reiss, Doi quickly became a rising star in the New York gallery scene. In 1927, his woodblock print "Woodstock Village" was named one of the 50 best prints in America. He repeated the feat the following year with his print "East Wind."
Doi returned to Hawai'i in 1928 for a triumphant one-man show, then spent a year in Paris studying art before returning to New York.
He returned home for good in 1958 and continued to explore art — woodblock prints and paintings that brought Asian and Western influences to abstract and impressionist approaches — until his death in 1965.
Doi's willingness to leave Hawai'i and hone his craft in the most competitive and demanding markets proved inspirational for a generation of ambitious Hawai'i-born Japanese-American artists, including Satoru Abe, Bumpei Akaji, Jerry Okimoto, Tadashi Sato and others.
