Tadashi Sato

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

In childhood, Tadashi studied Japanese sumi ink painting and calligraphy. He served in the 442nd Infantry Regiment as a language specialist during World War II and went upon to attend Cannon School of Business in Honolulu. He subsequently pursued his incorporation in art at the Honolulu Museum of Art under the G.I. Bill later than the precisionist painter Ralston Crawford, who was a visiting artist in residence. In 1948 he went to New York to scrutiny at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, Pratt Institute and the New York School for Social Research.

Sato's crack came while he was working as a security guard at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. A friend, who had been in force as a movie extra, introduced him to actors Charles Laughton 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 encourage and forth amongst New York and Hawaii, exhibiting both in Hawaii and upon 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 and other American artists. From 1960 until his death in 2005, he lived in Maui. Along subsequently Satoru Abe, Bumpei Akaji, Edmund Chung, Tetsuo Ochikubo, Jerry T. Okimoto, and James Park, Tadashi Sato was a zealot of the Metcalf Chateau, a action of seven Asian-American artists once ties to Honolulu.

Tadashi Sato is considered a aficionada of the abstract expressionist movement. He is known for his abstract and semi-abstract paintings, mosaics, and murals, some, such as Submerged Rocks, inspired by the positive water of his indigenous Hawaii. His aspire was to convey a sense of serenity, balance, light and space. Tadashi’s most famous work is Aquarius, a 36-foot round mosaic on the floor of the atrium of the Hawaii State Capitol. The piece depicts submerged rocks and water reflections. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York City), the Hawaii State Art Museum, the Honolulu Museum of Art, the University of Arizona Museum of Art (Tucson, Arizona), the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York City) and Yale University Art Gallery are in the midst of the public collections holding works of Tadashi Sato.