“Trust the color. More color. Color is power.”
Kikuo Saito (b. 1939, Tokyo, Japan; d. 2016, New York, New York) was a Japanese-American painter and theater artist known for his vibrant abstractions, which blend richly saturated color fields with delicate, expressive linework. Saito began painting in Japan in the 1950s. While apprenticing under the traditional Japanese painter Sensei Itoh, Saito explored contemporary avant-garde movements such as the Gutai group. In 1966, he moved to New York City, where he worked as a studio assistant to artists Helen Frankenthaler, Larry Poons, and Kenneth Noland: key figures in the Color Field movement.
Early in his artistic career, Saito experimented with poured paint before developing his characteristic style of loose geometric forms, lyrical brushwork, and translucent washes of color. Inspired by the Color Field movement, his paintings emphasize the relationship between color and light. Working in oil for much of his career, Saito embraced the medium’s slow drying time to explore a deliberate and gestural approach. His richly saturated canvases often integrate calligraphic lines and paint drips, creating energetic abstractions. His compositions range from bold and intense to soft and veil-like.
Beyond painting, Saito was active in the theater world, bridging dramatic and visual art and bringing a choreographic sensibility to his painting. He served as an artist-in-residence at Duke University, was a visiting professor at Musashino Art University in Tokyo, and taught painting at the Art Students League of New York. Saito's paintings have been featured in numerous solo and group shows worldwide, 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, will open in 2020, in honor of Saito's interdisciplinary practice and spirit.