TADASHI SATO / 1923-2005

STAR-BULLETIN / MARCH 1970 Tadashi Sato's circular floor mural "Aquarius," as it was two days after it was unveiled at the state Capitol courtyard.

Acclaimed artist
leaves indelible
mark on isles

WAILUKU >> Tadashi Sato, one of the most important Hawaii artists to emerge out of World War II, has died on his home island of Maui.

Sato, whose circular floor mural "Aquarius" is on permanent display at the state Capitol courtyard, died Saturday from complications due to cancer. Sato, born on Maui on Feb. 6, 1923, was 82.

"I think what he was uniquely able to do was combine aspects of modern art with influences from the landscapes of Hawaii," said Jay Jensen, associate director and chief curator of the Contemporary Museum in Honolulu.

Artist Satoru Abe said Sato, whose brush strokes were unique, was a "great artist."

"No one else painted the way he did, and probably no one will," Abe said.

Ben Kikuyama, a Maui artist, said Sato gave him boxes of pastel crayons when he was a young, aspiring artist and later offered him sound advice when a critic told him to take some art classes.

"He said, 'Don't worry about that, just find your own voice,'" Kikuyama recalled. "He felt it was more important to find your own style. He talked about Van Gogh and his own style."

A fisherman who enjoyed being close to the ocean, many of Sato's abstract expressionist paintings captured the ethereal, unifying and reflective quality of water.

The grandson of a sumi painter in Japan and son of a Lahaina candy store owner, Sato was among the group of Japanese-American veterans who developed as artists in New York after World War II.

Sato, who worked as a security guard at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, got his break one night when actors Charles Laughton and Burgess Meredith and a Broadway producer visited his apartment to see his works.

They bought seven paintings, with Laughton acquiring three of them.

Sato, who later moved back to Maui, said from that point on, he could work as a full-time artist.

Some of his artworks on public display include a floor mural entitled "Submerged Rocks and Water Reflections" at the Shinmachi Tsunami Memorial in Hilo and a painting titled "Nakalele" at the Hawai'i Convention Center in Honolulu.

Sato's daughter Janice Shimamura said he was a humble man who felt fortunate to be able to do something that he enjoyed for a living and wanted to share his art with the public.

"He wanted his art to be accessible to everyone," she said.

Sato is survived also by sisters Fumiko Sugai and Keiko Sato, and son-in-law Mark Shimamura.

Visitation with the family starts at 2 p.m. June 17, followed by the funeral at 3 p.m. at Kahului Union Church.