RUTH LEIALOHA KANAHELE IVERSEN

(American, 1926-2011)

KOʻOLAU, OAHAU LANDSCAPE

Oil on Canvas

71¾ x 48 Inches

Signed Lower Right,

"Leialoha Kanahele Iversen"

Previously with:

Gima's Art Gallery, Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii

 

A substantial coastal landscape showing a view of the Koʻolau Range on the lush eastern shore of Oahu. Dating to Ruth Kanahele Iversen's mature period, this lyrical work eloquently articulates the artist's vision of Hawaii's unspoiled natural world.

 

Born in Maui, Ruth Leialoha Kanahele was a descendant of Alii Nui Kahekilinuiʻahumanu (King Kahekili II) and Kahuna Nui Hewahewa (High Priest Hewahewa). She first studied at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles and, subsequently, at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. Over the course of a long career, she exhibited widely and with success throughout the Hawaiian islands, including at the Bishop Museum, and was awarded the Maoli Arts Award for commitment to Hawaiian tradition and culture. A long-time member of the Hale Naua III Society of Hawaiian artists, she contributed to hundreds of exhibitions, both in the islands and beyond, that furthered awareness of both Hawaii's pristine landscapes and its native culture. Through her art, she encouraged the preservation of irreplaceable areas of Hawaii's natural beauty including the sacred native sites of Ka Pae Aina and the spectacular Koʻolau Mountain Range that is the subject of this work. Ruth Leialoha Kanahele's spiritual landscapes evoke the time-honored indigenous traditions and aspirations of her people that seek to honor the soul of nature and of all natural things.

 

Ruth Kanahele's paintings are held in the permanent collection of the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts and in numerous corporate and private collections throughout the world. In the last ten years of her life, Ruth Leialoha Kanahele Iversen became both the Foundation's most recognized ambassador and its most esteemed member.

 

Displayed in the original, 1960's silver-gilt and mahogany frame.

Framed Dimensions: 72.25 x 48.5 inches