Tadashi Sato (February 6, 1923 – June 4, 2005) was an American artist. He was born in Kaupakalua on the Hawaiian island of Maui. His father had been a pineapple laborer, merchant, and calligrapher, and Tadashi's grandfather was a sumi-e artist.

Biography

In childhood, Tadashi studied Japanese

sumi ink Inksticks () or ink cakes are a type of solid Chinese ink used traditionally in several Chinese and East Asian art forms such as calligraphy and brush painting. Inksticks are made mainly of soot and animal glue, sometimes with incense or medicin ...

painting and

calligraphy Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...

. He served in the

442nd Infantry Regiment The 442nd Infantry Regiment ( ja, 第442歩兵連隊) was an infantry regiment of the United States Army. The regiment is best known as the most decorated in U.S. military history and as a fighting unit composed almost entirely of second-gene ...

as a language specialist during World War II and went on to attend Cannon School of Business in

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

. He then pursued his interest in art at the Honolulu Museum of Art under the

G.I. Bill The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, bu ...

with the

precisionist Precisionism was a modernist art movement that emerged in the United States after World War I. Influenced by Cubism, Purism, and Futurism, Precisionist artists reduced subjects to their essential geometric shapes, eliminated detail, and often us ...

painter Ralston Crawford, who was a visiting artist in residence. In 1948 he went to New York to study at the Brooklyn Museum Art School,

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...

and the

New York School for Social Research The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...

. Sato's break came while he was working as a security guard at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

in New York. A friend, who had been working as a movie extra, introduced him to actors

Charles Laughton Charles Laughton (1 July 1899 – 15 December 1962) was a British actor. He was trained in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and first appeared professionally on the stage in 1926. In 1927, he was cast in a play with his future w ...

and Burgess Meredith, who were both art collectors. They visited Sato's apartment and bought several paintings. Sato promptly called his boss at the museum to resign. Between 1950 and 1960, he traveled back and forth between New York and Hawaii, exhibiting both in Hawaii and on the mainland. In 1960, Tadashi, his wife Kiyoko and two children returned to the islands. In 1965 Sato was honored by President Lyndon Johnson at the White House Festival of Arts, alongside Georgia O'Keeffe,

Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his " drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a hor ...

and other American artists. From 1960 until his death in 2005, he lived in Maui. Along with Satoru Abe, Bumpei Akaji, Edmund Chung,

Tetsuo Ochikubo Tetsuo Ochikubo (1923–1975), also known as Bob Ochikubo, was a Japanese-American painter, sculpture, and printmaker who was born in Waipahu, Hawaii, Honolulu county, Hawaii. During the Second World War, he served with the 100th Battalion of the ...

Jerry T. Okimoto Jerry T. Okimoto (Jerry Tsukio Okamoto, 1924–1998) was a Japanese-American painter and sculptor who was born in Waianae, Hawaii. Double image Okimoto is best known for his minimalist works consisting of several solid colored, geometrical ...

, and James Park, Tadashi Sato was a member of the

Metcalf Chateau The Metcalf Chateau, also known as The Group of Seven, was a group of Asian-American artists with ties to Honolulu. The name is derived from a house slated for demolition on Metcalf Street in Honolulu, in which they exhibited in 1954. The exhibi ...

, a group of seven Asian-American artists with ties to

. Tadashi Sato is considered a member of the

abstract expressionist Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...

movement. He is known for his abstract and semi-abstract paintings, mosaics, and murals, some, such as ''Submerged Rocks'', inspired by the clear water of his native Hawaii. His goal was to convey a sense of serenity, balance, light and space. Tadashi's most famous work is ''Aquarius'', a 36-foot circular mosaic on the floor of the atrium of the Hawaii State Capitol. The piece depicts submerged rocks and water reflections. The

University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art The University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art is a visual arts institution that is part of the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. Since its inception, the museum has partnere ...

(Iowa City, IA), the

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...

(New York City), the

Hawaii State Art Museum The No. 1 Capitol District Building, on the site of the former Armed Services YMCA Building, now houses the Hawaii State Art Museum and the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. History While they were both in the cabinet, under King ...

, the Honolulu Museum of Art, the

University of Arizona Museum of Art The University of Arizona Museum of Art (UAMA) is an art museum in Tucson, Arizona, operated by the University of Arizona. The museum's permanent collection includes more than 6,000 works of art, including paintings, sculptures, prints and drawin ...

(Tucson, Arizona), the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

(New York City) and Yale University Art Gallery are among the public collections holding works of Tadashi Sato.Booker, Deborah, Hawaii artist's long-missing painting found, ''The Honolulu Advertiser'', March 27, 2009, D1

References

* Clarke, Joan and Diane Dods, ''Artists/Hawaii'', Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press, 1996, 80–85. * Department of Education, State of Hawaii, ''Artists of Hawaii'', Honolulu, Department of Education, State of Hawaii, 1985, pp. 39–46. * Haar, Francis and Neogy, Prithwish, ''Artists of Hawaii: Nineteen Painters and Sculptors'', University of Hawaii Press, 1974, 112–119. * Hartwell, Patricia L. (editor), ''Retrospective 1967-1987'',

Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts The Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts was established by the Hawaii State Legislature in 1965 to "promote, perpetuate, preserve, and encourage culture and the arts, history and the humanities as central to the quality of life of the ...

, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1987, p. 61 * Jensen, James, ''Tadashi Sato, A Retrospective'', Honolulu, The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, 2002. * International Art Society of Hawai'i, ''Kuilima Kākou, Hawai’i-Japan Joint Exhibition'', Honolulu, International Art Society of Hawai'i, 2004, p. 42 * Morse, Marcia, ''Legacy: Facets of Island Modernism'', Honolulu, Honolulu Academy of Arts, 2001, , pp. 22, 76-81 * Radford, Georgia and Warren Radford, ''Sculpture in the Sun, Hawaii's Art for Open Spaces'', University of Hawaii Press, 1978, 96. * Sato, Tadashi, Sketchbook in ''Bamboo Ridge: Journal of Hawai'i Literature and Arts'', Summer 1990, 72–77. * Yoshihara, Lisa A., ''Collective Visions, 1967-1997'',

, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1997, 46.
Tadashi Sato: Remembering a Master
Article about artist '' Maui No Ka 'Oi Magazine'' Vol.9 No.3 (Oct. 2005).

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sato, Tadashi 1923 births 2005 deaths 20th-century American painters American male painters 21st-century American painters Artists from Hawaii American artists of Japanese descent People from Maui 20th-century American male artists