Kikuo Saito Paintings
Japanese, 1939-2016
With ties to the Color Field tradition, Saito’s color landscapes are a richly infused exhibition of dragged and poured paint, often with bold flecks of color, animated calligraphic line, and stenciled lettering. Influenced by his work in theatre, many of his compositions are directly related to the movements and lights found on stage, as is the case with Crocodile Boogie.
Japanese born and trained Kikuo Saito (1939–2016) moved to New York in 1966 where he worked as a carpenter while acting as studio assistant to Helen Frankenthaler, Kenneth Noland, and Larry Poons. Saito had long association with La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in New York creating costumes, set design, and directing. His productions drew inspiration from traditional and avant-garde Japanese theatre.
Saito's paintings and are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Aldrich Contemporary Museums, and numerous private and corporate collections. KinoSaito, a non-profit museum and art space in Verplanck, New York, opened in 2020, in honor of Saito's interdisciplinary practice and spirit.(Biography provided by Taylor Graham)
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Artist: Kikuo Saito
Spanish Ghost
By Kikuo Saito
Located in Austin, TX
Acrylic on canvas. Signed, dated, and titled verso.
52.25 x 52.75 in.
54 x 54.25 in. (framed)
Custom framed in a maple hardwood floater.
Provenance
Salander O’Reilly Galleries, New York
Private Collection, Connecticut
Provenance
Estate of Samuel Feinstein...
Category
1980s Color-Field Kikuo Saito Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Acrylic
Crimson
By Kikuo Saito
Located in Boca Raton, FL
Kikuo Saito was a color field painter, set designer, and theater director, who began his career as a studio assistant for some of the most preeminent painters of the 1970s and ‘80s, including Larry Poons, Kenneth Noland, and Helen Frankenthaler. Saito’s works are bright and calligraphic, often covered in gestural strokes of color, drips of paint, and stenciled capital letters. Before turning to painting, Saito was a resident at New York’s La MaMa Experimental Theater Club, and collaborated on set design with directors and choreographers like Robert Wilson, Peter Brook...
Category
20th Century Abstract Expressionist Kikuo Saito Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
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Kikuo Saito (1939 – 2016) was a Japanese-born American abstract painter with ties to the Color Field movement and Lyrical abstraction. A former assistant to Helen Frankenthaler, Kenneth Noland, and Larry Poons, Saito's work infuses richly saturated colorscapes with delicately drawn lines. Saito was the creator of sui generis theatre and dance events, collaborating with innovative directors and choreographers Robert Wilson, Peter Brook, Jerome Robbins, and dancer and choreographer Eva Maier, to whom he was married for several decades. His productions combined wordless drama in the poetic frameworks of light, costumes, music, and dance, most of which he devised and directed himself.
Kikuo Saito was born in Tokyo in 1939. He began painting when he was 17 years old, and worked for 3 years as a proctor and studio technician at the workshop of Sensei Itoh, an established Japanese painter. During this time, Saito gained an understanding of both the traditional arts of Japan as well as contemporary movements such as the Gutai Group. He also had an interest in the burgeoning New York City art world and movements such as Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, Color Field, and Pop Art.
Saito moved to New York in 1966 at the age of 27. The journey across the United States to New York provided him a chance meeting with Ellen Stewart, founder of La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, whom he would later describe as his American mother. Once in New York, Saito worked with Stewart at La MaMa and was instrumental in bringing Japanese avant-garde dramatist Shuji Terayama to La MaMa in 1980. In his early years in New York, Saito balanced painting with theatre, supporting himself with carpentry and working on loft build-outs in Soho.
The composition of many of Saito's paintings was significantly influenced by and in dialogue with the geography of his theatre productions. Saito's dualistic nature took material form in the interplay between the collaborative theatre and the private realm of the painting studio. Art critic Karen Wilkin wrote that "if we are attentive, we discover that characters from his stage pieces have been reincarnated as abstract configurations within his paintings, reborn as the records of animated gestures that retain the individuality of their sources."
A commonality in the entire body of Saito's work, both on stage or on canvas, focuses on written signs...
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Blue Ivory
By Kikuo Saito
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Blue Ivory, 2015
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Crocodile Boogie, abstract contemporary Asian work
By Kikuo Saito
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A dramatic abstract by a rising artist. The Asian an Post War influences make this a sophisticated and sexy work for any interior. It has deep rich color but is not dark and it bri...
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Cohan's Stay
By Kikuo Saito
Located in New York, NY
Kikuo Saito
Cohan's Stay, 1979
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Sugar Moon
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Blue Talia
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Spanish Biscuit
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Kikuo Saito paintings for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Kikuo Saito paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Kikuo Saito in paint, canvas, fabric and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 21st century and contemporary and is mostly associated with the abstract style. Not every interior allows for large Kikuo Saito paintings, so small editions measuring 53 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Larry Poons, Jack Roth, and Judith Kruger. Kikuo Saito paintings prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $60,000 and tops out at $148,500, while the average work can sell for $115,000.