Recipient of the 2019 Ka Palapala Po'okela Book of the Year award from the Hawai'i Book Publishers Association for excellence in Hawaiian Language, Culture and History, and recipient of the prestigious Samuel M. Kamakau Award for Hawai'i Book of the Year. (This biennial award is for books published in 2017-2018)

Based on the Honolulu Museum of Art's 2018 exhibition, Ho'oulu Hawai'i: The King Kalakaua Era, is an exploration of how a forward-looking nation created a cosmopolitan identity that took its place on the world stage.

Ho'oulu Hawai'i: The King Kalakaua Era considers art and experimentation in the Hawaiian Kingdom during the reign of King David Kalakaua (1874-1891). Cosmopolitanism–the idea that local politics share systemic parallels internationally as part of a world citizenry–was a thriving philosophy in the Hawaiian Kingdom, and it was expressed through art.

People in Hawai'i developed a visual language that merged art and politics, and presented local iterations of global art styles. They expanded an existing visual culture using a combination of indigenous and introduced materials, concepts, and techniques.

The show featured experimental art works alongside academic art works to explore how both the avant-garde and the academic were deployed in the shaping of a national identity. The exhibition prompted conversations about issues of adaptability, economy, ceremony, and more important, addressed underlying perceptions about the Hawaiian place in the world at the turn of the century. It also challenged ideas about tradition, modernity, and culture in Hawai'i through the collection and loaned works.

Softcover
Pages: 210
Published: 2018
ISBN 9780937426944