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Henry Sugimoto Collection

eishida
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Henry Sugimoto, "Documentary, Our Mess Hall"

This painting shows the inside of the Mess Hall previously shown. Here, Sugimoto pays attention to the detail of the people as he paints. Hints of emotion can be detected, like in the child in green who refuses to eat what his mother offers. Because the Japanese Americans were only allowed to bring necessities with them during their evacuation, Sugimoto was limited in his choice of pigment usage, which is why so many of the tones in this painting are similarly brown in base.

The two signs in the back, which read "No Second Serving!" and "Milk for Children and Sick People Only," serve to show us the limited amounts of resources that these camps had.

Based on this original

Henry Sugimoto, "Documentary, Our Mess Hall"
uploaded by eishida
A group of eight people eat fish and rice at a table. In the foreground, with their backs to the viewer, a woman in rust red with white pattern feeds … More »


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