Jared Young Chong American, 1904-1990

Jared Young Chong was born in Hawaii 1904, to parents of chinese ancestery. While studying at the University of California, 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, 1931, still in situ today. It was Rivera’s grand mural projects in Mexico, which 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.

 From the pre-war 1930s through 1970, Chong served as Art Director for the Honolulu Advertiser supplying sketches on all aspect of daily life which opened other opportunities including 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.