Kikuo Saito Art
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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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 Art
Materials
Canvas, Acrylic
Paper Lake, Large Abstract Silkscreen by Kikuo Saito
By Kikuo Saito
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Kikuo Saito, Japanese (1939 - 2016)
Title: Paper Lake
Year: 1979
Medium: Silkscreen with Collage, Signed in Pencil l.r.
Edition: 160
Size: 42 x 29.5 inches (124.46 x 74.93 cm)
Category
1970s Abstract Kikuo Saito Art
Materials
Screen
Pink Square, Large Abstract Silkscreen by Kikuo Saito
By Kikuo Saito
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Kikuo Saito, Japanese (1939 - 2016)
Title: Pink Square
Year: 1979
Medium: Silkscreen, signed and numbered in pencil
Edition: 225
Size: 42 x 29.5 inches [106.68 x 74.93 cm]
Category
1970s Abstract Kikuo Saito Art
Materials
Screen
Beggar's Ladder, Large Abstract Silkscreen by Kikuo Saito
By Kikuo Saito
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Kikuo Saito, Japanese (1939 - 2016)
Title: Beggar's Ladder
Year: 1980
Medium: Silkscreen, Signed and Numbered in Pencil
Edition: 160
Size: 42 in. x 29.5 in. (106.68 cm x 74.9...
Category
1980s Abstract Kikuo Saito Art
Materials
Screen
Onion Train, Large Abstract Silkscreen by Kikuo Saito
By Kikuo Saito
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Kikuo Saito, Japanese (1939 - 2016)
Title: Onion Train
Year: 1979
Medium: Silkscreen, signed and numbered in pencil
Edition: 225
Size: 42 x 29.5 inches [106.68 x 74.93 cm]
Category
1970s Abstract Kikuo Saito Art
Materials
Screen
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 Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
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"Orange Tent" Kikuo Saito, Color Field Abstract Expressionism, Japanese-American
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Provenance:
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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."
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Wind Mil
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Wind Mill, 2009
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47.25h x 61w in
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Early 2000s Abstract Kikuo Saito Art
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Blue Ivory
By Kikuo Saito
Located in New York, NY
Kikuo Saito
Blue Ivory, 2015
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51.75h x 46.25w in
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2010s Abstract Kikuo Saito Art
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Crocodile Boogie, abstract contemporary Asian work
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Cohan's Stay
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Kikuo Saito
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1970s Abstract Kikuo Saito Art
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Sugar Moon
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Blue Talia
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Spanish Biscuit
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KIKUO SAITO
Spanish Biscuit, 1985
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1980s Kikuo Saito Art
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Drawing #290 & Drawing #291
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KIKUO SAITO
Drawing #290 & Drawing #291, 1999
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1990s Kikuo Saito Art
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Mayweed
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Mayweed, 1986
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Drawing #292
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Kikuo Saito art for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Kikuo Saito art 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 20th century and is mostly associated with the abstract style. Not every interior allows for large Kikuo Saito art, so small editions measuring 30 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Michael David, Friedel Dzubas, and Katsunori Hamanishi. Kikuo Saito art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $1,200 and tops out at $148,500, while the average work can sell for $60,000.