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 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 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 The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. The museum has one of the largest single col ...

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 painter

Ralston Crawford Ralston Crawford (1906–1978) was an American abstract painter, lithographer, and photographer. Early life He was born on September 5, 1906, in St. Catharines, Ontario, and spent his childhood in Buffalo, New York. He studied art beginning in ...

, who was a visiting artist in residence. In 1948 he went to New York to study at the

Brooklyn Museum Art School The Brooklyn Museum Art School was a non-degree-granting professional school that opened at the Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, New York in the summer of 1941. The Brooklyn Museum Art School provided instruction for amateur artists as well until Janua ...

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 Oliver Burgess Meredith (November 16, 1907 – September 9, 1997) was an American actor and filmmaker whose career encompassed theater, film, and television. Active for more than six decades, Meredith has been called "a virtuosic actor" and "on ...

, 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 Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) was an American modernist artist. She was known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O'Keeffe has been called the "Mother of Ame ...

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 Satoru Abe (born 13 June 1926) is a Japanese American sculptor and painter. Biography Abe was born in Moiliili, a district of Honolulu, Hawaii. He attended President William McKinley High School, where he took art lessons from Shirley Xime ...

Bumpei Akaji Bumpei Akaji (1921–2002) was an American sculptor from Hawaii. He was known for welding large copper and brass sculptures which can be seen all over Hawaii as part of Hawaii's Art in Public Places program. Biography Akaji was born in Lawai, ...

, Edmund Chung, Tetsuo Ochikubo, Jerry T. Okimoto, and James Park, Tadashi Sato was a member of the Metcalf Chateau, 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 Hawaii State Capitol is the official statehouse or capitol building of the U.S. state of Hawaii. From its chambers, the executive and legislative branches perform the duties involved in governing the state. The Hawaii State Legislature—com ...

. The piece depicts submerged rocks and water reflections. The University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art (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

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 draw ...

(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 (1875–194 ...

(New York City) and

Yale University Art Gallery The Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) is the oldest university art museum in the Western Hemisphere. It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. ...

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 The island of Maui (; Hawaiian: ) is the second-largest of the islands of the state of Hawaii at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2) and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is the largest of Maui County's four islands, whic ...

'' 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