Tiger Tales: Finding Raymond Han

This is part of a series of stories that take you behind the scenes of the exhibition Home of the Tigers: McKinley High and Modern Art, on view through Jan. 12, 2025. 
 
Curators Alejandra Rojas Silva and Tyler Cann had already configured the layout for the exhibition Home of the Tigers: McKinley High and Modern Art when museum supporter Flora Ling approached them in the HoMA Café one day. Ling had heard about the upcoming exhibition and asked them if they were aware of Raymond Han. Not only did Ling own of the artist’s works, but she knew his family. 
 
When Silva and Cann saw Han’s works—and discovered that the HoMA collection includes two of his paintings—they knew they had to adjust the exhibition to accommodate the Korean American artist.  
 
“Flora connected us with his nephews and niece. We were fortunate that they are on island and were willing to lend their works to the show,” says Cann. “We decided to go with the still lifes because they are so exquisite and it is interesting to see them all together.”  
 
Han showed his art aptitude early. When his nephew Dane Han and his wife met with Rojas and Cann at the museum, they brought along a 1949 McKinley yearbook, which featured illustrations by Raymond Han on almost every page.  
 
That was also the year Han had his first solo exhibition. He quickly became a bright young star of the Honolulu art scene, showing his work in the city’s commercial galleries and at the Honolulu Academy of Arts (now HoMA), where he continued to study art. 
 
In 1954, Han moved to New York after winning a scholarship to the Art Students League, and he remained in the state for most of his career. Though Han was an accomplished painter of the human figure and also explored abstraction, much of his work was devoted to still-life painting. 
 
Thanks to a chance encounter at the HoMA Café, new generations are discovering his work in Home of the Tigers.