Jared Young Chong

Jared Young Chong (1904-1990) was gifted as an artist from a young age and was known to draw on any surface available, filling sketchbooks as quickly as they were placed in front of him. While his greatest inspiration came from his native Hawaii, opportunities for instruction in art were limited once he moved past his primary education. In the 1920s very few Hawaiians pursued higher academic education and almost none the study of art. In an era that predated commercial air travel, few were even encouraged to leave the Islands at all. Chong's determination was undeterred, however, and with the support, assistance, and encouragement of his high school teachers and a community patron who was an alumnus of the University of California, he received a scholarship to the University of California, Berkeley to pursue art.

While studying at Berkeley and at the San Francisco Art Institute, Chong had the unique opportunity to work alongside Diego Rivera, prepping the walls with fresco for Rivera's mural The Making of a Fresco Showing the Building of a City of 1931, which remains in situ today. It was Rivera's grand mural projects in Mexico, which so often depicted scenes of Mexican history, society, and class struggle, that inspired Chong to focus his own art, upon his return to Hawaii in the late 1930s, on the native Hawaiian population and its landscapes.

Though the outbreak of the Second World War, and especially the bombing of Pearl Harbor, imposed great limitations on the young artist, ultimately the postwar focus on the Islands proved creatively beneficial. Filled with a lingering military presence, newly arriving celebrity tourists, and a growing focus on the beautiful beaches, surfing, and beach boys, Hawaii enjoyed a burgeoning economy and cultural awakening that would lead to statehood in 1959.

From the prewar 1930s through 1970, Chong served as Art Director for the Honolulu Advertiser, supplying sketches on every aspect of daily life. That platform opened other opportunities as well, including the landscape design of the Diamond Head Mansion, illustrating books, collaborating with architects on mid-century inspired homes, and serving as an instructor at the Academy of Art, now the Honolulu Museum of Art, where he could train and inspire Hawaii's next generation of artists.