Isaacs Art Center

Juanita Vitousek (1890-1988)

Juanita Vitousek (1890-1988)

Born in Silverton, Oregon, Juanita Judy Vitousek (1892-1988) was educated at the University of California and came to Hawaiʻi with her husband in 1917. She became an active force in the art community and by the late 1920s began to concentrate on two areas: landscape and floral studies. Her paintings would ultimately put forth some of the most eloquent 20th-century statements on both the landscapes and spectacular flora of Hawaiʻi. 

Her watercolors increasingly came to the attention of galleries and collectors, not only in Hawaiʻi, but also across the country. She, along with Juliette May Fraser and Madge Tennent, became part of a group in Hawai’i who formed "The Seven," one of the earliest formalized coalitions of women artists in the United States. A frequent exhibitor with the Association of Honolulu Artists, she received awards in 1933 and 1937 and had several one-person shows at the Honolulu Museum of Art, the first in 1941. In addition to her frequent Honolulu exhibitions, Vitousek showed in Boston, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, and Seattle. She continued to study at the University of Hawai’i with artists Joseph Albers, Jean Charlot, and Millard Sheets. An active and dedicated artist, Juanita Vitousek painted well into her nineties.